


Body Was Made

by BerryMaw



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Age Difference, Awkward Romance, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Major Age Difference tbh, Original Character(s), Trans Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-10-15 08:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 39,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17525543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryMaw/pseuds/BerryMaw
Summary: Jasper already had enough bad luck to last him a lifetime, but crashing into the side of a tourist trap in the middle of nowhere? That definitely took the cake.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The fanfic follows the “Swooning Over Stans: A Grunkle Dating Sim” plotline, But will eventually diverge into another path entirely.
> 
> I really hope you all enjoy! (And, a side note; the title will make much more sense later on.)

He never really thought that he would be on his own like this. Jasper knew that his parents didn’t like him, and he knew that very well, but to kick their nineteen year old son out into the world with nothing but his car and the few belongings he could fit into a trash bag? 

 

He tried to ignore the way that his throat started to close up at the thought, and he blinked his eyes so that he could still see the road. It wasn’t like he would be alone forever. His older sister was planning on letting him move in with her and that was where he was headed, but it didn’t help him feel any better honestly. Just driving in his car with the radio on still felt so empty and strange. It didn’t feel like it usually would. He didn’t want to sing along to the songs that he recognized on the radio and he didn’t dare to look at himself in the rearview mirror like he usually would have - fixing stubborn hairs that fell out of place. He knew that he probably had puffy bags under his eyes from crying. 

 

In and attempt to distract himself, Jasper looked at the scenery that passed by as he drove. He usually had pretty good direction, and knew how to get places when he needed to, but he didn’t recognize anything and his phone had died a couple of hours ago - it probably wouldn’t have had signal anyway, from what he could tell by the dense underbrush and giant forest around him.

 

But he quickly noticed a sign that was coming up, and he did his best to read it as it passed. _Gravity_ _Falls_. That was in Oregon, right? At least he knew what state he was in now. He had a few more hours to go before he reached where his sister lived, and he knew it would be the longest couple of hours in his enire life.

 

But he was jostled from his thoughts of his location when his car suddenly jolted forward as if he had slammed on the gas. Jasper, in a panic, slammed on the breaks. They weren’t working.  He could feel his heart jump up into his throat as he tried to then pull the emergency brake. But the car still continued to move, and it suddenly jerk to the left and he let out a cry.

 

The next thing he knew was that the front of his car was smashed into a building, but his head was fuzzy and he could feel something wet and sticky dripping down his lip. He groaned and his eyes fluttered for a moment, trying to see just what happened, but all he could see was smoke rising from the hood of his car. 

 

Jasper carefully unbuckled himself, forcing the slightly bent door open, though the door swung open quicker than he anticipated and suddenly he felt something on his shoulders - a pair of hands. He looked up, still very dizzy.

 

”Are you alright?”

 

It was a much older man, and he looked rather concerned. Jasper almost pushed him away when he had his head firmly tilted up and a suddenly bright light hit his eyes. After a moment, the stranger let his chin go and Jasper shook his head uncomfortably. 

 

“What’s your name?” The man asked, eyebrows furrowed together but his eyes still alight with worry.

 

After a moment, the young male managed to huff out, “Jasper.”

 

”Jasper, I’m Stanford Pines,” the man introduced himself and then sighed a little bit before adoing, “I would shake your hand, but you look shaken up enough as it is.”

 

Jasper didn’t really have his mind in the right place, so he couldn’t really question why receiving a handshake from the man would make him feel even worse. And to be honest, he didn’t really care that much.

 

”Where on earth were you driving in such a hurry?” Stanford asked.

 

Again, it took Jasper a moment to even formulate something that would be English, but the response died in his throat when he heard a voice yell out from inside of the house,

 

”Poindexter, this better not be one of your experiments again!” And a few seconds later, a man who looked rather similar to Stanford came stomping out of the building, appearing to be rather irritated.” I’ve had this place rebuilt too many times to—“

 

It seemed that his frustration with the situation died out when he noticed the car, and Jasper was coming back to reality just enough to realize that the man also looked rather worried at the sight of him. Jasper rubbed his neck and then his four head. He was sure that he would have a bruise, and when he rubbed the underside of his nose, he realized that what he felt earlier was blood.

 

”Sweet Moses, Ford, you’ve done it this time.” The other man said.

 

”What?” Stanford looked at the man, narrowing his eyes, “This had nothing to do with me! I was testing my magnet gun, and...”

 

Jasper noticed Stanford suddenly looked alarmed again as he exclaimed, “It must have pulled this victim of circumstance into the house! I suppose it is entirely my fault. I’m incredibly sorry.”

 

Jasper was extremely overwhelmed. He had many thoughts rushing through his head, most of them over the fact that he now had a completely totaled car, and was going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. His phone was dead and he didn’t know what to do. He could feel tears bubbling up in his eyes, but he shook his head and cleared the tears away.

 

”It’s, uh... it’s okay.” Jasper managed a shrug.

 

It most certainly was not okay, not even in the slightest. He was internally freaking out. He had to find a way to call his sister and let her know what happened. How would he even get to her, now that he had no car?

 

”No,” Stanford shook his head slightly, frowning, “I must have done something wrong. A wire mix-up, perhaps, or the potentiometer—”

 

”They’re talking about your _other_ mistake, Sixer.” The man next to him quickly cut through Stanford’s words, seemingly annoyed.

 

”Oh, right.” Stanford suddenly took on an expression that was both awkward and ashamed.

 

Jasper felt like crying again, but once more did he blank away the tears and do his best to focus on the situation. And he noticed that the other man seemed to be able to tell how, for lack of a better term, freaked out he was.

 

”Hey, look, it’s fine, alright?” He said, giving Jasper a bit of a smile, “Sure there’s a dent in the hood from the Shack’s signage, and a crack in the windshield that looks like an ominous triangle, but I’m sure she’ll still run.”

 

Jasper let out a sigh, doing his best to calm himself down. Maybe he was right. Maybe everything was just more appearance damaging than anything else. He walked back over to the drivers seat of the car and tried to start it, but it did nothing but sputter and die out seconds later. He looked over at them both.

 

”Oh.” The man said, quiet for a moment before sighing, “Well, let’s call a tow truck for this unfortunate soul here and forget—“

 

”I’ll take care of it.” Stanford interrupted him, looking determined.

 

”You’re right, it _is_ cheaper to tow it yourself.” Stan suddenly grinned, looking at who Jasper finally realized was his (twin?) brother. “Sixer, get that magnet gun out again.”

 

Jasper couldn’t really tell if he was kidding, but it still made him smile a little bit. The other man noticed and there was a small gleam in his eyes. Was it apologetic? Regardless of the intention, the comment definitely relieved a little bit of anxiety.

 

”No, Stanley,” Stanford rolled his eyes, “I’m going to fix this.” 

 

“What?” Stanley suddenly barked out a laugh, “You, fix this mess? Are you kiddin’ me? It’d take some sorta miracle worker to bring this baby back to life, and _this_ miracle worker is on vacation.”

 

”Stanley,” Stanford sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “a moment?”

 

As the brothers stepped away, Jasper looked at his car again. How in the hell was he going to explain this to his sister? He didn’t expect something like this to happen. Then again, who would? He didn’t have money for another car or for new parts, but he was sure that they ran buses out there. Didn’t they? He could take the bus out of there and maybe use a payphone to call his sister.

 

Jasper’s attention was torn from his wrecked car and moved back to the brother’s when he heard one of them clear their throat. Stanford was shifting awkwardly in place. 

 

“So, there are a few options.” Stanford dropped his hand from his neck and it met the other behind his back, looking surprisingly professional about it. “My brother Stanley here could drive you out to town to find a place to stay for the night, or... you could stay the night here.” It was obvious he noticed Jasper’s hesitation because he added, We have some maps and information you can look at in the gift shop, and in the morning we can help you with your car. What do you say?”

 

Jasper hesitated for a moment, but when he was about to answer, he was interrupted by a rather high-pitched voice that came from inside of the building. He had a feeling that he would never actually get a chance to speak, so he closed his mouth again.

 

”Grunkle Stan, picture this: a whole week of— oh my gosh!” 

 

It was a young girl and she looked just as energetic as her voice was. When she ran up to Stanford and Stanley, she came to a complete halt at the sight of his wrecked car. Jasper sighed, embarrassed more than anything else, even though it wasn’t even his fault - a bad habit he had picked up over the years.

 

”Grunkle Ford?” She looked at him worriedly.

 

 _Grunkle?_ Jasper frowned ever so slightly, but didn’t really have time to ruminate on what that even meant.

 

“Why is it that everyone automatically thinks that I’m at fault?” Stanford mumbled, exhasperated. But then he frowned. “Well, this time it _is_ my fault. But I’ve invited Jasper to stay with us for the night, if you’d like. I’m sure I can fix this… I just have to figure out how.

 

Stanley let out a sigh. “I can take a look.”

 

Jasper realized his expression seemed a little surprised because Stanley chuckled. “Eh, being on vacation’s pretty boring. And the old Stanmobile hasn’t needed a tune-up yet, so it wouldn’t be too bad to work on something in the meantime.”

 

”Thank you, Stanley.” Stanford smiled a little bit. “I’m sure I can put something together from the gadgets I have laying around if you need any specialized tools to help you with the job.”

 

”Oh! Let me introduce myself!” The girl piped up, which made Jasper give her his attention - he had to admit that little kids were his weakness. “I’m Mabel! You can ask me anything, I pretty much know everything there is to know about this place.”

 

”Cool,” Jasper finally found his voice again, and this time, wasn’t interrupted, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

”So you’re taking up our offer?” Stanford raised his eyebrows.

 

”I might as well.” Jasper managed a little chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m broke as a joke and can’t afford a mechanic anyways, even if I wanted to. And I can only dream a new car.”

 

”It’ll be as good as new in my hands.” Stanley nodded with a grin, “I mean, look at my Stanmobile, she’s been through the wringer who knows how many times and she’s still a beaut.”

 

Jasper looked over at Stanley pointed out a red car that was parked a little ways away. He couldn’t really see how beautiful it was at the distance, but Stanley sounded really confident and Jasper had no reason to not believe him.

 

”My apologies again.” Stanford rubbed his neck and Jasper noticed a flush of pink on his cheeks. “What an embarrassment. I’m surprised you’re even taking us up on the offer after such an elementary mistake.”

 

”Mistakes happen.” Jasper shrugged, giving him a small smile.

 

“Well, grab your stuff,” Stanley gave him a grin, “we’ll get you settled in.”

 

The next hour or so was a bit of a flurry that Jasper was still a little too overwhelmed to understand. Mabel had given him her number, written down on a small and sparkly pink sticky note. And he found out that Stanford, who went by Ford, was ineed Stanley’s twin brother, and that Stanley went by Stan. He also got a chance to meet Mabel’s brother, Dipper, who was enough of a nervous wreck that it made Jasper feel a tiny bit better about his own anxiety issues.

 

And the rest of the evening consisted of Mabel showing him where he was staying and the tour of the rest of the house, which was mundane but calm - Jasper got a chance to actually breathe. It didn’t take him long to learn that the family was much more extended than he understood. The decorative doilies that were around the house made more sense knowing that a grandmother and her grandson Soos also lived there.

 

When Jasper finally got a chance to return to the storage room that Mabel had shown him earlier, he found that there was an air mattress with a few pillows and sheets. A few more sheets that he would need with how hot it was, but he still appreciated the gesture. He felt exhausted. And he knew that in the morning he was going to have to call his sister and let her know what happened. But before he could think about it more, among other things, he found himself passing out on the air mattress before he could even remove his shoes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As you can probably tell already, I’ve been adding and changing a few dialogue things in the fanfic just so that it flows better and looks more original and so that it doesn’t read like a script fic so much. Lmao
> 
> Hope you all enjoy!

Jasper woke up several times throughout the night. He wasn’t sure what made him so uncomfortable. The air mattress was actually quite comfortable, and he seemed to have gotten the best pillows that they had. Maybe it was still part of what happened that made him so restless. But regardless, he did get enough sleep to wake up at a decent time in the morning. The sun was streaming through the small window, and he felt slightly annoyed and wanted to go back to sleep. But instead, he sat up.

 

He still couldn’t believe what happened yesterday actually happened. It was ridiculous to him that he was in this situation. He made sure to change his clothes, briefly remembering the way that Stan had looked at him when he saw that Jasper was only carrying a trash bag full of things and a guitar case. It was almost a familiar look, one that made Jasper quite uncomfortable and worried. 

 

He did his best to brush off the thought and reached over to where he had plugged his phone in. He had several messages from his sister, ranging from ‘good morning’ to ‘where the fuck are you’. Jasper had to smile at that.  If there was only a few people in the world that actually cared that he existed, it was his older sister. After doing his best to wake up a little bit more, he finally called her number. And when she answered, she was furious.

 

”I’ve been texting you all morning!” She sounded more worried than angry, but Jasper knew better than to assume that she wouldn’t have punched him if they were together. “Why the hell haven’t you been answering me? I was super worried!”

 

”Sorry, sorry.” Jasper soothed, rubbing his face with his free hand. “I just... some stuff went down yesterday and my phone died.”

 

”This better be a good story, Jasper.”

 

So Jasper started to explain exactly what happened. He felt strange about telling his sister that a magnet gun was involved, whatever that was anyway, but he wouldn’t lie to her. Besides, he had to let her know what was going on because she’d literally murdered him if he didn’t. When he finished his explanation, there was silence.

 

”Angela?” Jasper frowned. “You there?”

 

”Dude, that’s insane.” Angela said suddenly.

 

Jasper laughed, unable to help himself as he leaned forward on the air mattress. “Isn’t it?”

 

”So the old guy is gonna help fix your car?” Angela asked.

 

”Yeah.” Jasper nodded, though she obviously couldn’t see her. “It’ll probably be a few days or a week, but I’ll be back on the road soon.”

 

”Alright, well, keep in touch and text me whenever you can.” She said. “Seriously. You scared the fuck out of me and I’ll kill you if you do that again.”

 

”Love you too, Angie.” Jasper chuckled.

 

He hung up after a moment, rubbing his face once again. At least he had one stress off of his shoulders that he wouldn’t have to worry about later. There were a million more things to worry about, but he would focus on just taking it day by day. That was all that he could do, anyway. 

 

Jasper left the storage room and headed to where the kitchen was. He was assured yesterday that he was free to anything in the fridge, but he felt a little weird about just eating them out of house and home like he probably would at his... He stopped that train of thought so that he could focus on just getting some cereal. A modest breakfast. And when he finished eating, he washed his dishes and went to make an exit - he ran into something solid instead of going through the doorway.

 

“Excuse— Oh! Ah.” Stanford was a little surprised at the sudden collision.

 

”Sorry about that.” Jasper gave him an awkward smile.

 

There was a rather uncomfortable pause and silence between them, which was broken a few seconds later by Stanford clearing his throat. 

 

“I believe Stanely’s taking a look  at your car outside, if you want to be there for it.” He said, regarding Jasper in a way that almost made him feel like he was back in high school again, being scrunitized by a teacher. 

 

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Jasper nodded, “that would be a good idea.”

 

Jasper went to finally leave that time when Stanford spoke up again. “Jasper? I’m sorry again for the accident. If I’ve been smarter about… Well, let’s just say it’s entirely my fault and you shouldn’t worry about this at all.”

 

”It’s really not a big deal, Ford, but I do appreciate apology.” Jasper mustered up a genuine smile.

 

”Well, when it comes down to it, Stanley does have a knack for cars.” Stanford smiled in return, seemingly much more relaxed. “I predict you’ll be back on the road in a matter of weeks.”

 

Weeks. Jasper couldn’t really keep the dismay off of his face and he didn’t really bother to try, either. He felt bad because he was just pleased that one of them had offered to actually help him fix his car, especially because as he knew, his wallet was only holding what money he had managed to take from his parent’s house (and his father’s wallet) before having to scram.  He had may be a few hundred dollars, if that. And he knew that fixing his car would eat that up right away.

 

”What am I going to do for weeks?” Jasper asked quietly.

 

Stanford was obviously a little bit uncomfortable and Jasper knew that was because of his reaction. But he did recover quickly in order to answer, which Jasper appreciated. 

 

“Well, there’s the town to tour, of course.” Stanford smiled, but then it fell a bit. “And... and the Mystery Shack. But if you ask me, all that pales in comparison to—“

 

He trailed off for a moment when a noise came from another room. “Hold on, do you hear that?”

 

Jasper was confused, but he definitely heard the noise. He stood in place as Stanford turned to the kitchen doorway in order to investigate. The sound came again and this time it was much louder. It was the squeal of a pig followed by a pair of quick footsteps running down the stairs. The pig that Jasper had met the other night, Waddles, tumbled passed the open kitchen doorway and Mabel came into view soon after. She had a few papers in her hand.

 

Jasper followed Stanford as he stepped out of the kitchen and they both got there just in time to see an apparent battle of tug-of-war between Mabel and her pig over a saliva-covered sheet of paper.  Suddenly, the paper ripped in half and Mabel tumbled backwards, but she recovered quickly and snatched of the scrap of paper from Waddles jaws and left both of the pieces of victoriously.

 

“Haha! Mabel wins again!” She cried. “Now I just gotta find— Grunkle Ford!”

 

Jasper watched as Stanford carefully steadied Mabel, who was bursting with energy and in danger of toppling over yet again. Mabel shoved a few pieces of paper into his hand and tugged urgently at his coat. 

 

“Grunkle Ford!” She exclaimed, hands on her cheeks, “You have got to help me!”

 

Jasper almost laughed when he saw Stanford kneel down to face Mabel with a very serious, and slightly concerned, look. “Slow down, Mabel. What’s the matter?”

 

“Dipper found a stack of pages from your old journals and I walked in and Wattles ran up and started eating one and he must’ve been chewing on it toward me, Grunkle Ford, because look!” Mabel almost said everything she needed to without taking a breath and Jasper was impressed.

 

Mabel took the ripped pages of the paper back from Stanford and joined them together, holding them up for him to see. 

 

“Hm. You took it as a warning?” He asked her.

 

”Yes!” She gasped, seeming very worried. “It says here that it eat small dogs, and Waddles is a small pig, but he sort of looks like a dog from far away and Waddles must’ve feared for his life!”

 

Jasper was instantly curious as to what was on those pages, but he didn’t ask because it seemed like it must’ve been sort of a private matter, especially if it came from something that Stanford had made - a journal. But what ate small dogs?

 

He looked over at the pig, who seemed to second that notion with a snort. Or not, as it seemed that the pig was lounging adorably in a short distance away in the hallway. Just really couldn’t imagine what the dangerous predator could be. Some kind of wolf, or something bigger? Jasper was instantly a little worried about staying with them at that idea.

 

”Hmm..” Stanford hummed before smiling a little. “how about I finish that repellent that I never got around to completing? That’ll keep Waddles safe from harm.”

 

Comically, Mabel flopped down on the floor and let out a huge sigh of relief. ”Grunkle Ford, you are an actual lifesaver. Waddles, you have nothing to fear!”

 

Stanford let out a chuckle that Jasper mirrored, and he lifted himself out of the kneel that he was in before standing back up. “Alright, I’ll go get my recipe.”

 

Jasper gave Stanford a little smile that was mirrored, and he couldn’t help but admire the older man for entertaining the idea of helping Mabel with her fears. At first, he wouldn’t have even slightly imagined Stanford as someone to worry or enjoy having a child around, but when he saw him interact with his niece and nephew, it was obvious that he really did love them.

 

And then he let out a sigh. He really needed to go and check on his car. Stanford had mentioned that his brother was working on it and Jasper really did want to be there for that. That car was probably the only possession he had anymore that was worth something. So, after a moment, he left the house and went to look for Stanley.


	3. Chapter 3

When Jasper stepped outside of the Mystery Shack, he found himself taking a deep breath. It was the summer, so the air was warm and he could hear the buzz of insects in the distance. It was strangely peaceful out in the country like that. He never really had a chance to go outside of large towns and cities, so this was actually a really nice, very accidental, vacation. He was definitely going to think of the idea of maybe going camping at some point when he actually got to his sister’s house.

 

But when he heard a light ‘clank’, his attention was diverted and he stepped off the porch, rounding the corner and seeing his… Absolutely destroyed car. The silver paint had been shipped in a few places and the giant ‘S’ from the sign of the shack had fallen and cracked his windshield. Stanely was standing beside it, his hands on his hips as he stared almost stubbornly at the letter.

 

”How bad is it?” Jasper asked - half a legitmate question and the other half was rhetorical.

 

”Can’t really tell yet, not ‘til I get the letter of the hood.” Stanley said honestly, “The ‘S’ never did like to stay in place.”

 

”’Mystery Hack’, huh?” Jasper chuckled a little, unable to help it.

 

”Look, if you’re gonna insult me—“ Stanley began irritably and then stopped at the look of worry on Jasper’s face, and he jolted a little bit in alarm, “oh, you were reading the sign. Uh,  i’m fixing that later, all right? Just for your eyes. Don’t look at it.”

 

”Guess we should fix that as soon as possible, then.” Jasper said awkwardly, smiling to try and hide just how intimidating Stanley was when he was irritated.

 

”Sounds good to me.” He looked over at Jasper and returned the smile, a bit more genuine than the younger male’s, “give me a hand here, would’ya?”

 

Jasper walked over to Stanley and they took their positions next to the hood of the car. It took a little bit of work, but they eventually managed to shove the wooden 'S’ off of the car. It hit the ground hard and made a solid noise as it did so, which made Jasper instinctively cringe a little. But Stanley didn’t seem to notice, as he was a little more focused on opening the now very obviously dented hood of the car to take a look inside. He made a few noises that seemed slightly focused and rub the handover his chin in thought. Jasper watched as he wandered over to his toolbox and grab a tool before walking back, still assessing the damage.

 

”Yeah, this one’s going to take a while.” Stanley confirmed, much to Jasper’s dismay. “You’ve got some parts that need replacing, not to mention she’s not gonna look so hot after this. Not unless Ford’s got the tech squirreled away somewhere that can smooth out these dents.”

 

It was definitely sinking in that he was stuck in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t like Jasper really had any important place to be, and the only thing he had been doing when he was trying to drive past the Mystery Shack was get to his sister’s place. He didn’t have a job or anything, nothing was tying him down to any one place, but still.

 

He was frowning and he was pretty sure that Stanley noticed - “Hey— Jasper, right? Look, I know how this sounds, but with me on the job you’ll be all set and back on that road in no time.”

 

”You think so?” Jasper was hopeful, even though he felt nothing but grateful for being allowed to stay there while his car was being worked on. 

 

“Kid, I know so.” Stanley said confidently, “I’ve even got a plan to get those replacement parts of yours. Might not be able to clean up all the scuff marks after I’m done, but she’ll run.” And then he added, “And hey, so maybe you’ve got to stay a couple days. So what? There are worse places to get stranded, believe me. In fact, I do even say the mystery shack is the best place to get stranded.”

 

Jasper had to laugh at that as Stanley continued. “ we’ve got all tons of stuff for people just passing through. Merchandise, magic, mystery, uh, any other m-words... mayhem... you get the idea.”

 

”You’ve really got me convinced.” Jasper joked as he watched Stanley toss a tool back into the toolbox and grab another.

 

A silence settled between them that was not exactly comfortable, but very far from uncomfortable. It was kind of nice, honestly. Jasper felt bad for staring so intently, but he figured he might as well learn a little bit about cars, considering he knew absolutely nothing aside from how to change his oil and how to change a tire.

 

”Can I help with anything?” He asked suddenly, though his voice was sort of quiet.

 

”Do you know anything about cars?”

 

”... No.”

 

Stanley straightened, cracking his back and setting down the tool in his hand before leaning casually against the nearest loadbearing service, which happened to be Jasper’s car. He wiped his forehead and let his hand fall to his waist. The younger male sort of shrank down a little bit under the heavily assessing look that Stanley was giving him.

 

”Hm.” He said, “How about collages? Tall-tales? Improv?”

 

”I mean, I did have to take a theater class when I was in high school,” he joked awkwardly, “so I think I can handle that. But what does that have to do with cars?”

 

”Well, nothing.” He admitted and Jasper raised an eyebrow. “I was planning on having you help me help Soos around the shack, a favor for a favor. What d’ya say?”

 

”That seems fair.” Jasper nodded after a moment.

 

”Alright, follow me.” Stanley smiled.

 

Jasper followed Stanley back into the Mystery Shack, passing by the showroom and getting a glimpse of an energetic figure leading a flock of tourists through a vertible sea of obviously fabricated strange... things. 

 

“And this is the ninth wonder of the world, right here in the Mystery Shack! It’s why makes this place world-famous, dudes.”

 

Jasper realized that he had stopped to listen to the strange figure talk, and noticed that Stanley slow down to listen as well. And when Jasper turned his attention back on the older man, he was given an explanation. 

 

“That’s Soos!” He seemed rather proud. “During operating hours, he’s the Mystery Shack’s one-and-only Mr. Mystery. I told him he didn’t have to keep the shack running while he’s on vacation, but the kid’s really got a passion for the role.”

 

”He seems pretty good at it.” Jasper had to agree and then smiled a little bit. “I was thinking about going on a tour, honestly.”

 

“Then I’m going to give you the tour of the place.” He decided. “You’re going to get one from the founder himself!“

 

”Oh gosh, I feel so special.” Jasper chuckled and felt a pleasant twinge when Stanley laughed.

 

”You should, kid,” Stanley winked, “I don’t do this for everybody.”

 

Jasper wasn’t sure what about the wink sent him internally floundering, but maybe it was because, even for an older man, probably three times his own age, Stanley was pretty attractive. He had a very sly silver fox thing going on. 

 

“Anyway, follow me folks! Er, well, folk,” he chuckled, sounding strangely smug (which made Jasper’s ears hot), “Get ready to be amazed.”

 

Jasper followed Stan when he started leading him back the way that they came. He was a little skeptical but definitely curious.

 

”There’s a tour group in the showroom right now, so I’ll be taking ya in a different cycle that completely misses ‘em.” He explained. “We’re starting in the gift shop.”

 

When they entered the gift shop, Jasper was not really amazed, but very curious. It was a simple room that was crowded top to bottom with the standard tourist souvenirs and merchandise.  There were plenty of t-shirts with different logos on them, though primarily question marks, mugs with question marks and honestly, everything had some sort of question mark on it. And in one corner of the room stood a lumpy attempt of a statue that was labeled “The Founder” and Jasper only recognized it was Stanley because of the nose and glasses.

 

“This room usually comes after I butter up the customers into buying things, but since you’re staying a while, I have plenty of time to sell you stuff later.” Stanley explained with a smile.

 

”Who says I’m gonna buy something from you?” Jasper asked with a little grin as he began to explore the items in the shop.

 

”I never lose a customer.” Stanley said and then his smile faltered. “Okay, I don’t lose _most_  of my customers.”

 

”That sounds more reasonable.” Jasper laughed.

 

Jasper found himself distracted by the various items that were in the shop. There was, of course the statue of the founder, and there was a freezer full of iced goods. There was also a jar of eyeballs that made Jasper rather uncomfortable, as well as a pyramid of mugs that he realized were actually glued together so that if someone tried to grab one, a disaster would happen. There was an Aztec calendar and many t-shirts and a couple of hats. 

 

“Alright, you done?” He asked Jasper and when the younger male nodded, Stanley seemed pleased, “Good timing. I hear the tour group heading out of the showroom, anyway.”

 

Once they got into another part of the Mystery Shack, Stanley continued to talk. “Now, most tourists don’t appreciate my— I mean, nature’s artistic genius. By which I mean my artistic genius, because I remembered that you’re gonna help me out today.”

 

”Alright, sounds good.” Jasper nodded.

 

”C’mon then,” Stanley grinned, “you’re going to see what makes this place the 'Mystery Shack’ instead of just 'The Shack’. We’re making another attraction for the showroom.”

 

Jasper followed stand through the living room and into the kitchen, where a bunch of stuffing and animal parts are strewn across the surface to their left.  Stanley pulled out a thick needle and spall of thread, and as an afterthought added a couple of nails and a hammer to the pile. It seemed a little unsanitary to do this right across in the fridge and it had the potential to look almost gruesome if it weren’t so... just weird. But Jasper kind of liked that the people who lived in the Mystery Shack were just as strange as what they made. Or what Stanley made, rather.

 

”You know, you work like you still are in charge of this place.” Jasper commented.

 

”You can take a man out of the Mystery Shack, but you can never take a mystery out of a man.” Stanley said, “Specifically me, which is why am back to work even though I don’t have to. Thirty years of the same routine’ll do that to you.”

 

”I bet.” Jasper nodded.

 

Jasper couldn’t ever imagine working somewhere for thirty years, especially since he had never really held a job down for more than a few months. But Stanley seemed happy, even though he didn’t actually work there anymore.

 

”Let’s get started!” Jasper said after a moment, feeling surprisingly confident.

 

But when they both turned to look at the table, Stanley’s smile fell for just a brief moment before he smiled again. “Yeah, I have no idea what you’re going to do with the stuff. Surprise me!”

 

As Stanley walked off to do some work of his own, Jasper was glad that he wasn’t going to be watched all the way through. He looked back to the table full of various things. He had to decide what he was going to make and he knew it was going to be interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

It took Jasper about fifteen minutes to finish his abomination. Most of the time consisted of stitching the parts together, as he was actually pretty good with sculpting extra details - looked like the pottery class he was forced to take wasn’t so useless after all.

 

”Alright,” he said, looking over his shoulder at Stanley, “I’m finished!”

 

Stanley wandered over after a moment to look at what he had made. A grin stretched across his face and Jasper couldn’t help but feel a small swell of pride from blooming in his chest. It wasn’t often that people were proud of him.

 

”Not bad, Jasper!” Stanley nodded, “Not bad at all.”

 

Stanley lifted the anomalous amalgam up in a sort of triumphant way. “So what’s the story here? Give it to me.”

 

Jasper felt like he probably should’ve seen that coming, and his mind raced in order to think of something that he could tell Stanley that would be impressive enough to match the creature he had created. What came out was more nonsensical than anything else, honestly.

 

”Uh, this is a fisquirken.” Jasper managed with a flourishing guesture at the creature Stanley held, “A fish-squirrel-chicken.”

 

Stanley laughed a little bit. “Sounds like you got the hang of this. Anyway, this thing is about as close to show ready as it‘ll get. Wait here a sec.”

 

Jasper stood patiently as Stanley carried the showpiece out of the room. And after a few moments, he heard the footsteps return and Stanley came into the room with two cans of Pitt cola.  He set one down on the dining table and waved Jasper over to join him, which the younger man eagerly did.

 

”Nothin’ like a cold one to finish up the day.” He said. “Cheers.”

 

Stanley picked up his can and gestured it toward Jasper as he leaned back in his chair. The younger male reciprocated the gesture, but found himself watching Stanley as he took a drink. He knew that he was staring, but he couldn’t help it. After a moment, he looked down at his own can and popped it open as a distraction more than anything else.

 

”So, got any questions for me?” Stanley asked. “Talkin’ tends to ease me into a new place. Might do the same for you.”

 

Jasper found that he actually did have a few questions. But they were mainly about him. “Tell me about yourself.”

 

Stanley let out a laugh. “What is this, our first date?”

 

”You wish.” Jasper gave him a playful grin and felt a small burst of pride again when Stanley laughed a little more.

 

“Well, I‘m Stanley Pines.” He shrugged. “Imaginator, town darling, used-to-be-proprietor of the Mystery Shack.”

 

Jasper gave him a bit of a look, raising an eyebrow because he was obviously expecting more than that.  

 

“What, you were serious?” He seemed surprised. “I don’t, uh, get this often. The longest I can get people to listen to me is when I’m selling 'em on something, and even then, it’s tough luck. Why don’t you tell me about yourself instead? Sure you’re more interesting than me.”

 

Jasper rolled his eyes, knowing that Stanley was just avoiding the question. But he answered all the same. “Well, I’m Jasper Daily, a nineteen year old who’s moving in with his sister.”

 

”Yeah,” Stanley snorted, “alright, I see how that isn’t enough of a story.”

 

Jasper chuckled a bit and then Stanley shrugged, “The last time someone actually listened to me, they tried to eat me. Do you understand why I don’t say much now?”

 

“And?” Jasper leaned in a little, “Keep going. You can’t just end it there.”

 

Stanley gave him an uncertain smile, which quickly became a full on grin and was accompanied by a laugh. “Alright, I’ll tell ya. So y’see, there’s this irresistible thing called ‘revenge’...”

 

Jasper listened to eagerly as Stanley told him a tale of a road trip, a mountain full of mummies, and a woman who is secretly a spider monster. Honestly, Jasper really didn’t believe a word of it, but he found himself enjoying it anyway. Stanley really knew how to hold somebody in decent suspense and Jasper did notice how he lit up whenever he laughed at the right parts, and found that Stanley grinned along with him.

 

Before that morning, Jasper had honestly never even imagined a tourist trap in the middle of the woods with such an interesting family living there. But he realized that he was feeling like he was actually seeing something special here, one-on-one with Stanley Pines himself.  He noticed how much more relaxed he was with just Jasper in the room, and the young man felt rather flattered that Stanley seemed to be comfortable enough to talk to him like that. It was nice to know that he was trusted, even though they barely knew each other.

 

Stanley tipped his head back to get the final sip of the soda, and Jasper did his best not to stare at him again as the man set the empty cans down with an ait of finality. “Well, Jasper, y’did good for your first try. If you feel like helping me around again sometime, returning the favor on the car, let me know.“

 

Jasper nodded and Stanley got up to leave. However Jasper remembered something - “Wait, I still owe you the price of admission, right? For the tour earlier?”

 

”Hm?” Stanley looked at him and then shrugged. “Nah, don’t worry about it.” and then he added with a grin, “Gives me somethin’ to hold over you if I need it.”

 

After he said that, he left the room. But Jasper had a feeling that from what little he’d actually experienced with Stanley, he wasn’t really the type to hold that over someone, at least not for anything that wasn’t serious.

 

Jasper got up after a little while, putting his can on the counter and then heading back to the storage room that he called his temporary bedroom. He found himself just messing around on his phone, taking in some quiet time because he hadn’t really gotten any alone time recently. He sent a few texts out to people that actually cared about his existence, like his sister and the occasional friend. And by occasional, he meant literally the two friends he actually had.

 

That was when he glanced over at his guitar. One of his friends had actually given it to him and taught him how to use it, and over the years, Jasper learned how to play many songs and he found that it was a good way for him to relax. He wandered over to it and took it out of the guitar case. It was the usual tan wood, and some of the strings didn’t match because he never really had enough pocket money to get the expensive strings that were made for it.

 

He sat back down on the air mattress and leaned against the wall, absentmindedly plucking a few chords. He had written a few songs himself, but he didn’t really think they were any good and he never really bothered writing any more. He had just started playing an actual song when he looked up and saw that Mabel had popped her head into the room. 

 

“Oh my gosh!” She gasped, stepping into the room with an excited look, “I thought I heard music somewhere and I came to look for it. You play the guitar?”

 

”Mhm.” Jasper chuckled at her amazement. “Learned when I was... Well, probably around your age.”

 

”What can you play?” Mabel walked over and sat down on the air mattress. 

 

“Depends,” He smiled at her, “what do you want to hear?”

 

“You’d play a song for me? Really?” She sounded so excited and Jasper couldn’t help but let his heart melt into a little puddle. She was adorable. And it was also kind of nice that somebody appreciated his guitar skills. “Do you know any songs from like.. hm... do you know any pop songs?”

 

”Yeah, of course.” He chuckled, “I think I’ve got one. Hold on.”

 

Jasper carefully tune his guitar, unable to feel anything other than happiness with Mabel sitting beside him, grinning like an absolute maniac because she was excited. And after a moment, he started playing a pop song he always heard his sister singing when they were younger. And when he glanced over at Mabel again, he saw that she had her head in her hands and she was looking at him like he was some sort of god, which made him laugh in the middle of singing and he had to stop because he was both embarrassed and flattered.

 

”That’s so cool!” Mabel clapped her hands, eyes wide and grin big and bright. “You should be famous! Ooh! Or in a boy band!”

 

”Ew,” Jasper joked, “I’ll skip out on the boy band idea.”

 

Mabel bounced onto her feet after a minute. “I think you’d make the perfect lead singer of a boy band. Maybe not a pop boy band, but definitely a boy band.”

 

“Whatever you say, Mabel.” Jasper grinned.

 

After Mabel bounded out of the room, Jasper figured out that he couldn’t really get rid of the smile on his face. So he continued to pluck out chords until she came back up later, telling him that dinner was ready. It felt so weird to be comfortable in a place that he had only just arrived to, and on accident, nonetheless. But he couldn’t deny that he liked he warm feeling in his heart that he couldn’t remember feeling in a very long time.

 

He felt at home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter is ridiculously long because I didn’t see a spot where I could end the chapter in a decent manner. Sorry about that. Lmao
> 
> This is literally the longest chapter to anything I’ve ever written, well, ever. It’s insane and again, I’m really sorry. LMAO

The next morning, Jasper woke up to a loud crash downstairs. It wasn’t entirely uncommon in the house, which something he was quickly finding out, but it was still disconcerting. He changed into regular clothes and he walked downstairs. On the way down, he heard more clatters and thumps that led him to the kitchen, where he found Mabel teetering on a short step-ladder in front of the pantry. She was standing on her tiptoes and reaching high as she could for a small yellow box, which jasper quickly identified as pancake mix. Without a word he went to her side and pluck the box from the shelf for her placing it into her outstretched hands.

 

”Oh, Jasper!” She exclaimed, hopping down off the step-ladder. “Thank you! Grunkle Stan put it on the top shelf for some reason, but I want— no, I need— some Mabelcakes! It’s a breakfast emergency.”

 

She wiggled some of her fingers in front of his face and Jasper couldn’t help but laugh. He could honestly tell that the house became more alive when Mabel was around.

 

“Want to help me make 'em?” She asked. “We only need chocolate milk, coffee, pink food coloring, and Pot-o-Gold-O’s to make this breakfast dream a breakfast reality!”

 

That sounded, well, absolutely disgusting and like it would actually kill someone if they ingested it. He was more inclined to ask where the coffee came in to the mix, but he realized that the house was suspiciously quiet now that Mabel wasn’t trying to get pancake mix. He frowned a little.

 

”Mabel, where is everybody?” Jasper asked curiously. 

 

“Oh!” She said happily, “Grunkle Stan needed stuff for your car, so he went to get mech-y tech-y stuff for that. I think Grunkle Ford’s.... somewhere.”

 

”He heard the Abominable Bro-Man was trying to steal soda from campers, so he went to help them out.”

 

Jasper jumped a little at the sound of the voice, but realized that it was just Dipper coming into the kitchen. 

 

“Yup, that’s where he went.” Mabel nodded, shrugging. “Totally knew that.”

 

”So they left you guys to make breakfast on your own?” Jasper asked.

 

He didn’t really know the family well enough to know that if it was something normal, so the idea of leaving two very young teenagers alone to fend for themselves seemed fine. Jasper definitely had to fend for himself when he was younger. But the idea of one of the teenagers in question being Mabel was slightly concerning.

 

Soon Jasper’s his attention was more attracted to the fact that dipper was trying to hide the pancake mix for Mabel while she was grabbing the chocolate milk from the fridge. He seemed nervous, which let Jasper know that the “Mablecakes” were probably just as gross as Jasper imagined.

 

”Mabel, uh,” Jasper did his best to distract her, “while the ‘Mabelcakes’ or whatever sound absolutely amazing, um, why don’t we go out for breakfast somewhere? We should totally save those until your great uncles get back. I know they wouldn’t want to miss them for anything.”

 

”But I want to perfect my recipe!” She pouted, looking worried. “I have to get better at cooking and baking and stuff so I can survive out there in the world! What if I’m in high school I have to bake stuff and people are.. are _better_ than me?”

 

Jasper was glad that Dipper quickly understood what he was trying to do, and added, “Uh, yeah, Mabel! Jasper’s right, I know you wanna cook more since you’re...”

 

”Becoming an adult.” Mabel said, her voice eerily serious.

 

“Uh, sure, but don’t you think Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford should be here to try them to? And not just me? Again?” Dipper asked.

 

Jasper could almost feel the desperation in Dipper’s voice, and he instantly felt bad for the young boy who seemed terrified of his sister‘s cooking. Mabel hopped off the step ladder and seemed to ponder her brothers question, her lips pursed. But eventually, she nods, beaming at both of the boys.

 

”You’re right, Dipper,” she nodded, “I can’t deny them that experience!”

 

Dipper and Jasper exchanged pleased smiles over Mables head as she put the ingredients back where they belong. He watched Dipper rub the back of his neck, and he sort of wondered if he got that from Stanford. 

 

“We should go to Greasy’s!” Mabel said eagerly, “They have some of the best pancakes, with like three different kinds of syrup if you ask Lazy Susan nicely.”

 

”Yeah, it’s not super far.” Dipper confirmed with a smile. “Let’s go!”

 

The kids were about to leave the kitchen when Jasper realized something that was sort of important. “Wait, aren’t you going to leave a note for your... grunkles about where we’re going?”

 

It felt really weird to say that word, but he totally understood why they made it. It did make things a little easier to get out in a hurry.

 

”Oh, right!” Dipper nodded, “Good call.”

 

Jasper stood patiently as he watched Dipper scribble out a note for both Stanford and Stanley and smiled a little bit when he stuck it on the front door of the shack with one of Mabel’s explosively bright stickers. There was no way that they could miss the note with a sticker that bright on it.

 

Jasper followed them out of the shack and stayed behind them as they lead the way toward the town, explaining various landmarks and the wild, wonderful stories that were attached to them. It made him sort of miss his little sister. She was still at home with their parents, and he knew that his older sister had the plan of taking custody of her soon. His parents weren’t great people. 

 

It didn’t take them very long to get to the diner that they mentioned. When they stepped inside, it was obvious to Jasper that the kids knew just about everyone in the town. Several people, young and old waved at them as the group of three found a table. It was almost like the two of them were famous or something, but Jasper shrugged that off. Maybe it was just because they were cute - Mabel blew her paper wrapper off of her straw at Dipper’s face and in retaliation, he swatted at her with the laminated menu.

 

An elderly woman in a pastel pink waitress dress came up to the table after a moment, and Jasper noticed that her name was Susan on the tag she wore. She seemed rather nice, and it was obvious that she knew the kids too.

 

”Hiya kids! And stranger!” She smiled at both of the kids and gave Jasper a very friendly smile as well. “What can I get for ya?”

 

”Pancakes and all three syrups for me, please, Lazy Susan!” Mabel requested happily. 

 

“Uh, same for me, actually.” Dipper said after a moment with a smile.

 

”Waffles for me, please.” Jasper finished their order, smiling.

 

”Comin’ right up, sweetie!”

 

Lazy Susan winked, with her good eye, and headed to the back of the diner. Jasper chuckled. It wasn’t often that he ran into people who were happy to do their job, especially in food service, so it was nice to run into someone who seemed genuinely pleased with their position. 

 

The wait for the food to arrive felt much longer than most places, but Jasper had a feeling that it was because of Mabel and Dipper were both using the time to interrogate him.  At first, it’s sort of intimidating. Jasper literally ran into the house and started hanging out with their great uncles, so of course they had lots of questions. He really didn’t blame them.

 

But once he irrational fear of the two thirteen year olds faded away, he recognized their interview was more just making sure that their grunkles were safe. They really loved them, and Jasper knew that the feeling went both ways. He had a feeling that if he started to hang out with either of them more, the brother and sister duo would want to know him much about him as possible.

 

Mabel’s questions were strange and sort of random - “So if you were stranded on a deserted island with no boat, no cheating, what would you take with you?”

 

But they were easy to answer. “A match book, a knife and my guitar.”

 

And Dipper’s were much more calculated and careful - “ what were you doing before you came here? School, work, both or neither? Did you know about Gravity Falls before you crashed into the Shack?”

 

But slightly uncomfortable to answer. “I was heading to my sister’s place. And I had no idea about Gravity Falls.”

 

Jasper noticed during the impromptu interview that he could automatically tell which one of the older men the two younger twins took after. Obviously Stanford and Dipper were alike, their intelligence and curiosity unrivaled. And then there was Mabel and Stanley. They were goofy and partners in crime. And sort of adorable. He felt his stomach twist a bit at that thought, brushing it aside.

 

But it was obvious that, even as the young twins raised to see which syrup bottle would drip into their mouth the fastest, they did a lot more than just act as adorable counterparts for their great uncles. And the idea of the family being so close filled him with something that was very bittersweet.

 

”And here we go!” Lazy Susan’s voice made Jasper jump. “Enjoy, kiddos, let me know if ya need anythin’ else!”

 

Jasper was patient as the woman gave out the respective plates to each of them and he almost laughed at how quickly the kids went quiet, shoveling the food down their throat’s like they’d never eaten even once in their life. Between mouthfuls, he got a few more questions about himself and a few other random things, but the table was honestly near silent as the three of them ate their food.

 

Until Mabel spoke up through a mouthful of her pancake. “So, Jasper, if in a totally made-up and not real situation, you had to pick who your favorite was, who’d you pick: Grunkle Stan or Grunkle Ford?”

 

Jasper noticed right away how shocked Dipper seemed to be and her question was way too specific compared all of her other cute and weird questions. Dipper elbowed his sister and it wasn’t subtle enough that Jasper didn’t notice. But Mabel elbowed him right back, her wide eyes never leaving Jasper’s face. It intimidated him a little bit.

 

“Like, say you’re in a movie. Like one of those weird movies that Grunkle Stan watches on TV with the ladies in the poofy dresses riding horses.” Jasper’s eyebrows furrowed, but he let her continue. “You’re the main character of the movie and you’ve got two guys who are both madly in love with you. But you can only marry one of them so you could be next in line for the throne! What would you do? Who would you go with?”

 

Jasper swallowed a bite of his breakfast. She really didn’t mess around, did she? She also had no idea what subtlety was. But he did have to appreciate how serious she was about the situation. At the same time it made him very nervous and he wasn’t sure how to react or answer. 

 

“Mabel, that’s kinda weird, isn’t it?” Dipper looked creeped out, “Like... really weird. And kinda gross.”

 

”C’mon, Dipper!” She gasped, “This is important information that is vital to my research!”

 

”What ‘research’?” Dipper crosses his arms, almost suspiciously.

 

”None of your business! Yet. But I’m still gathering other research...” Mabel leaned towards her brother’s ear to whisper, wiggling her eyebrows at Jasper before she replied, and not in a whisper at all, actually the complete opposite, “Research into how you’re a huge nerd.”

 

Jasper withheld a snort. But with that final comment, Mabel catapulted a spoonful of melted butter from on top of her pancakes onto Dipper’s cheek with a very satisfying noise. Dipper jerked away in disgust but after a second, he retaliated by smearing strawberry syrup on to her face and nose, a drop of stickiness popping on to her sweater. 

 

“Eww, gross!” Mabel gasped.

 

”You’re gross.” Dipper gave her a smile.

 

There’s no anger between the twins, but lots of laughter and a few more various food-missiles. Jasper wasn’t ashamed to say that he was recording the entire event on his phone. Eventually, there was a ton of syrup all over Mable’s cheeks and her hair and Dipper had a piece of pancake stuck to his face.

 

”You guys are dorks.” Jasper said with a grin.

 

”Maybe you’re right!” Mabel said, flashing him a much more confident grin, “But we’re twins, so it’s adorable.”

 

Mabel seemed pleased, but Dipper looked beyond embarrassed when he spotted the phone in Jasper’s hand. “Please tell me you didn’t record that.”

 

”Okay, I didn’t record that.” Jasper shrugged with a devious grin and he laughed as Dipper groaned loudly.

 

”You’ve got to send that to me!” Mabel gasps and then giggled, “Especially because he has a pancake stuck on his face.”

 

”I what?” Dipper gasped, rubbing at his cheek violently until he got it off.

 

”Mabel,” Jasper couldn’t get rid of his grin even if he tried, “you have syrup literally everywhere.”

 

”Really?” She was only giggling, obviously not really caring that much.

 

”Here, let me get it,” Jasper chuckled, “your hands are sticky enough.”

 

Jasper got back up with a napkin in his hand, which he had carefully dipped into his glass of water. He tried his best to wipe some of the syrup off of her cheeks. The excess syrup came off easy, but a good portion of it was stuck to her skin. 

 

“I mean, maybe syrup as makeup is gonna be the next new look.” Jasper sighed with a smile as he sat back down.

 

”That’s one word for it kid.”

 

Jasper looked over his shoulder, recognizing the voice instantly.  Stanford and Stanley Pines had obviously made their way to the diner, and it looked like the younger set of twins were just as pleased at the sight of them. 

 

“We wondered where you went once we came back to a suspiciously quiet house.” Stanford said with a chuckle, “If it weren’t for Dipper’s note, we would’ve been worried.”

 

”Sixer would have been worried.” Stanley corrected his brother. “I tried to tell him you kids pull this kinda stuff all the time. Headin’ out unannounced, putting stress on your poor old grunkle’s heart... and all those missing hours of unpaid child labor!”

 

”Actually, that note wasn’t me.” Dipper smiled. “Well, I wrote it! But Jasper is the one who said we should do that so you’d know where we went.”

 

”Really?” Stanley and his brother seemed shocked. “Figured these two knuckleheads dragged you here.”

 

”Why not make breakfast at home?” Stanford asked, “This place is at least a fifteen minute walk from the Shack.”

 

”Well,” Jasper looked at the two youngest twins, who were messing about again, much quieter this time, “I wanted to treat them to something, I guess. It’s the least I can do. You’re letting me stay with you and fixing my car. I thought since you were gone, I take these two out for a change.”

 

”Also Mabel was gonna make Mabelcakes again.” Dipper added.

 

”You’re just mad you can’t even make toast right.” Mabel pointed out.

 

”Yes I can!” Dipper exclaimed. “That was one time. One time.”

 

Stanford asked Mabel about her creation, wondering how much extra caffeine want to probably gain from adding instant coffee to the concoction. The idea of it made Jasper sick, so he ignored them. But he noticed that Stanley was quiet and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the man was staring at him, I’ll lopsides smile talking at the corner of his mouth. It made Jasper’s ears get warm.

 

”Huh.. thanks, Jasper.” Stanley smiled, and Jasper knew for a solid fact that the man was actually blushing - the solid pink tinge of his cheeks ridiculously obvious in the light. “‘Preciate it.”

 

”Hey, it’s no problem.” Jasper waved off the thanks, his own face growing a bit warm.

 

It was an awkward moment that Jasper really hope to no one else noticed, as both of them look very embarrassed. Stanley was looking down at his feet and rubbing the back of his neck, and Jasper was looking back down at his plate.  But when he looked up again, he saw a Mabel throw him a theatrical wink. Something about that made Jasper both nervous and confused. 

 

“Well kid, if you’re payin’,” Stanley shrugged with a sudden grin, “scoot over, Dipper, I want breakfast too!”

 

”Stanley, it’s twelve-thirty now.” Stanford pointed out.

 

”Grunkle Ford, that means it’s time for brunch, duh!” Mabel exclaimed.

 

”See, this kid gets me.” Stanley pointed out. “Now lemme I’m so I can get some grub.”

 

Dipper moved over to Jasper’s side of the booth as Stanley took a seat next to Mabel and Ford sat at Dipper’s other side. Lazy Susan came back and took orders for another round of food and drinks for everyone. Jasper was starting to regret offering to pay, seeing as he had very little money to his name anyways. But as Stanley and Mabel tried their hand at the syrup-drip race with Dipper cheering them on and Ford watching with a wide grin on his face, Jasper realized that it wasn’t that bad.

 

In fact, it was worth it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, I know that there’s tons of typos in this, and I will go back and fix them all once I actually finish the story. Or get close to finishing it, anyway. 
> 
> I do all of the writing from my phone because I don’t have internet, so my phone is bound to do weird shit when I use the voice-to-text program on it.
> 
> Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Over the next few days, Jasper continued to help out around the Mystery Shack. He knew that he didn’t have to, but he didn’t really have anything better to do and he couldn’t sit around and text his sister and play his guitar all the time. It just made him feel lazy. So he often found himself helping Soos, the handyman and current Mr. Mystery. 

  
  
Jasper learned right away that he actually enjoyed his company. Soos was definitely kind, almost to the point where it creeped Jasper out a little bit. But it was nice to be able to talk to somebody who really didn’t judge him for anything. They talked about everything, from family to random topics that came to mind. He figured out quickly that the feeling of enjoying company was mutual, as Soos told him that he was ‘really digging the input’ on the current attractions from the perspective of an outsider. He even offered Jasper a job, just in case he got ‘stranded here forever, dude’. The offer was sweet, but Jasper was more interested in how Stanley choked on the ice-pop in his mouth when he overheard that comment.

 

Jasper was a little curious about the relationship between Stanley and Soos, but it also sort of made him smile. It was very much a father and son relationship, even though they obviously weren’t related in the slightest. It didn’t matter how many times Stanley had to roll his eyes at something that Soos was doing because he always helped Soos get it done the right way after a little while. But when he watched the two of them together, he felt that obnoxious pang of jealousy that he had felt every single time he watched any of the people who lived in the Mystery Shack interact. 

 

Jasper really didn’t have a functioning family, and he was fairly sure that he was completely excommunicated by his parents. The only family members that ever talked to him where his older sister and his younger sister. He didn’t really have any uncles or a great uncles, aunts or grandparents, so that really just left him alone. He didn’t have any adult guidance. To be fair though, it wasn’t like he listened to any of the adults in his life to begin with.

 

In order to ease those thoughts, which were beginning to make him emotional, he finally stepped out of the shower and got dressed. With wet hair, he walked outside. He was instantly a little confused when he didn’t see anyone right away. Usually the place was bustling with activity. However, after a little more searching, Jasper found Stanley standing with his back to him in one of the exhibit rooms, admiring the weird and wonderful creatures he collected for the tourist trap. His hand was cradling his chin in thought.

 

“Am I interrupting something important between you and the… Goosurkey?” Jasper asked pensively as he read the plaque beneath the creature for its identity, but with a smile on his face.

 

Stanley turned around with a little smile on his face. “Nope. You need something?”

 

Over the past few days, Jasper and Stanley had been getting a little bit closer. They were able to toss back and forth a few jokes and complain about things that really didn’t have any impact on anything serious - just getting it off their chests was satisfying. But Jasper couldn’t help but feel a little estranged from him still. It was like there was something that he was missing from Stanley’s overall existence. It was almost impossible to get any closer to him in any way. He sort of wondered if he’d figure it out.

 

“You have any plans tonight?” Jasper asked with a little wink, playfully regarding the older man.

 

Stanley laughed as he mulled over the question. Jasper felt himself shrinking back win the older man sort of assessed him, looking up and down slowly. Jasper had to admit that he had been getting slightly weird feelings about Stanley, but not the kind that made him seem like a creep or anything. In fact, the opposite. But he was trying to push it all away because that wasn’t something that could logically ever come to fruition and he knew that.

 

“I’ve got a couple errands to run.” Stanley said after a moment, “Why, you wanna tag along?”

 

“Hey, you might need a partner in crime.” Jasper gave him a small grin. “You never know.”

 

He watched as Stanley blinked a little, obviously shocked. But then he laughed. “What are ya, psychic?”

 

Jasper was taken aback. It had just been a figure of speech, a little joke, but after a moment the surprise ebbed away and he realized that he probably should’ve known better. Stanley was always up to some sort of trouble, he had come to learn.

 

“Alright,” Stanley said, putting his hands in the pocket of his jacket, “I’m heading out in a couple hours. Meet me out front.”

 

“A couple of hours?” Jasper was sort of confused. “But—“

 

“No buts, Jasper!” Stanley cut him off, still smiling. “Ya can’t rush this stuff, trust me.”

 

“Okay, I guess.” Jasper chuckled, shaking his head. “That’s not creepy and sort of shady at all, Stan.”

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Stanley rolled his eyes, “meet me out front if ya think you can handle it.”

 

Jasper was still confused as Stanley went to leave, but he stopped for a minute and looked over his shoulder. “Oh, and wear black. Somethin’ you don’t mind gettin’ dirty.”

 

Unfortunately, before Jasper got the chance to ask exactly why, he was gone into the depths of the Mystery Shack. He was still confused as he retreated to the storage room, his makeshift bedroom, and sent a text out to his sister.

 

**J:** hey if i don’t message you by tomorrow afternoon, assume im dead

 

Her response was instantaneous.

 

**A:** what the hell

**A:** jasper wtf does that mean

 

Jasper laughed and took a moment to respond.

 

**J:** the old man is dragging me out for errands. but like, at night ???? idk im worried and confused

**A:** dude i stg if you add to your record i will punch you the second you get here

**J:** i won’t. i hope. ttyl 

**A:** ttyl and i don’t love you

 

Jasper smiled at his phone before setting it aside. Angela loved him, and they always bantered back-and-forth about the fact that she really didn’t and she was just pretending. But this time, it was kind of nice to have somebody joke about the fact that they pretended not to love him instead of it being the truth.

 

He sighed and ran a hand through his damp, dark brown hair. As much as Jasper actually was enjoying his accidental vacation, the negative thoughts were creeping in, like monsters of some sort. And they wouldn’t leave him alone no matter how much fun he had. He wasn’t sure what to do to get rid of them. 

 

So he spent the next couple of hours just wandering around and talking to anyone that he could run into. It was sort of nice to be able to talk to people to get his mind off of things, even though he did understand that he would really have to focus on fixing his mental problems later - way later, as in, possibly never. He was a procrastinator in everything he did.

 

But it didn’t take him long to grow bored of that. So he found a pair of black jeans and a black sweatshirt he had and changed into them before heading out to the front of the Shack. He sat down on the front steps and simply enjoy the outdoors for a while. He patiently waited until the sun began to sink past the trees. It was cloudy outside, but still strangely warm. However there was a nice breeze that balanced it out.

 

Jasper thought that it was strange that the errands needed to happen so late in the day. However, he had gathered enough about Stanley’s criminal past to understand that it was probably just a typical weekday night for him. 

 

He was broken from his thoughts when the screen door freaked behind him and Jasper stood up. Stanley was dressed in all black just like he told Jasper to and he had a slightly lumpy duffel bag under one arm and a briefcase in his other hand.

 

“Ready?” He gave Jasper a grin.

 

“Ready.” Jasper confirmed, smiling broadly.

 

Jasper went over to the car and slid into the passenger seat as Stanley settled into the driver’s seat. It took a couple turns of the key to start, but the cars engine was finally chugging away by the time that Jasper got his seatbelt on. The radio came to life as the engine did and was spitting out some sort of generic rock music into the leather scented air of the car’s interior. He found himself watching Stanley as he spent a moment to adjust the mirrors and fiddle with a few things. Sooner than later, he slotted the gear shift into drive and pulled away from the Mystery Shack and headed down the road.

 

Jasper looked around as they drove, listening idly to the radio and tapping his foot to the beat, even though he had no idea what song was playing. But after a moment of silence, he spoke up.

 

“So I take it we’re not making a quick trip for milk and eggs.”

 

Stanley chuckled and glanced over at him. “Nope.”

 

“Then where are we going?” Jasper asked.

 

“First stop is to see a buddy of mine. A hunter. I get all my taxidermy supplies from him.” Stanley explained. 

 

“So that’s where you get your parts from.” Jasper nodded.

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“Oh, I just figured you got them from a local farm or something.” Jasper shrugged a little bit.

 

“And do business with those hippies?” Stanley scoffed. “Not a chance.”

 

Jasper chuckled a little. ”Well, I actually really enjoyed making that showpiece with you the other day. I didn’t really think you were gonna be so creative.”

 

He noticed Stanley glancing over at him with rather poorly hidden surprise, and he turn almost immediately back to the road and shrugged. “It’s just… gluin’ stuff together, really.”

 

“I don’t think so.” Jasper frowned a little bit, looking at him. “It takes a lot more skill than just slapping some junk together and calling it good.”

 

He smiled a bit when Stanley looked at him again, and Jasper was pleased to see the pink tinge appear on his cheeks. it was a good look for him, being flattered like that. But he could tell that it didn’t happen that often. Jasper knew the feeling.

 

“Well… thanks.” Stanley said after a moment.

 

It was quiet again as they both faced the road once more, but Jasper caught a glimpse of Stanley out of the corner of his eye and noticed that he was tapping out the rhythm of the song with a little more enthusiasm and even humming the chorus as he drove. 

 

“Do you have any other hobbies?” He was a bit curious as to what else someone like Stanley Pines got up to.

 

The older man rolled his shoulders back in a shrug and his head tilted a bit toward the window. “Ah, these days I spend most’a my time out on the boat with Ford. Huntin’ monsters, discoverin’ things.” But then he tacked on, as an obvious afterthought, “I used t’box.”

 

“I mean, it shows.” Jasper said honestly, but he could feel his ears burning as Stanley grinned.

 

From what Jasper had seen of Stanley, even despite his age, he was still fairly fit. He had strong arms and a bit of a gut, but he figured that came with age. He could definitely picture a younger version of him kicking some ass in a boxing ring.

 

“I wish I did something cool like that.” Jasper admitted, “I just spent my time holed away in my room or partying until I blacked out.”

 

Stanley laughed a little bit, but then his expression simmered down into a small smile. “I, uh… wouldn’t mind showin’ ya a few things, if y’wanted.”

 

“That would be awesome.” Jasper was eager at the idea.

 

He turned his attention back to the road, but noticed the smile on his face. Jasper was quiet for the rest of the ride, which was about twenty minutes of rural scenery. Stanley pulled off the road and onto a long gravel driveway that disappeared into the woods. It didn’t take them long to stumble upon a clearing that was populated by a small trailer home and a couple of sheds. It was a bit run down and shabby and one of the sheds looked like it was about to collapse of somebody possibly sneezed on it. The entire area was just way too sketchy for Jasper’s comfort.

 

“So, you’re totally gonna murder me, aren’t you?” Jasper asked.

 

Stanley laughed as he cut the engine as he rested his arm on the back of the front seat. “Unfortunately you’ve figured it out. So now I definitely gotta kill ya.”

 

Despite Jasper’s nervousness, he was quick to say, “I’ll put up a fight. It won’t be an easy job.”

 

“A little twig like you?” Stanley raised an eyebrow and snorted, “Please.”

 

“Excuse me!” Jasper exclaimed as Stanley moved to get out of the car.

 

Both of them laughed as Stanley shut the door behind him. Jasper watched quietly as the older man went to the door of the trailer. He knocked on it and the door opened into a dark interior before he walked inside. The door shut behind him and Jasper was automatically worried.

 

What the hell did he get himself into?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter will finally have some plot divergence from the dating sim plot. Not very much, but enough to actually give some sort of sustenance to Jasper’s character. Thank God. LMAO
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Both of them were silent as they neared the house. The porch took shape within the light glowing slightly above it. Behind it, the dark shape of the house sat in the even darker woods. Stanley led Jasper past the front porch and around the corner of the house to a set of stairs that appeared to lead into a basement.

 

“Ah, this is my favorite part.”

 

He withdrew a small, black object from his pocket and something that looked like a pen. Jasper figured out that the pen shaped object turned out to be a small flashlight and he watched as Stanley held it between his teeth and he open the black case to reveal a set of lock picking tools. 

 

“You’re a lucky person, kid.” Stanley murmured, “You get to see the artist in action.”

 

Jasper smiled but rolled his eyes. However, he did watch Stanley intently as he got to work, inserting one tool in and wiggling it down to the bottom of the keyhole and then pulling out another and poking at the inside of the lock with it. He glanced around in the darkness as Stanley worked on the lock. He was honestly expecting to get caught before anything actually happened, but the clicking of the lock alerted Jasper that Stanley was actually successful.

 

“That was cool.” Jasper grinned.

 

Stanley was beaming with pride as he opened the door with a flourish, letting Jasper step through the door in front of him. The basement was on lid and it smelled like dust and mildew. The air was sour with dirt and mold, which made Jasper move his shirt up briefly to cover his nose and mouth. Stanley moved past him into the dark, the only light being the small pen flashlight that he brought. Both of them moved through the laundry room and toward the door that was across from the bottom of a set of rickety wooden stairs.

 

“Wait ‘til you see this, kid.” Stanley said quietly. 

 

There was another lock on the door, which Stanley picked quite quickly and he allow the door to creek open into a dark room with our flooring that was barely left by the flashlight. He went in first and Jasper followed him. Stanley hit the light switch, which revealed a beautifully design gallery with plush scarlet carpets and gleaming wood paneling that was full of… paintings of sad clowns.

 

Stanley looked more excited than Jasper had ever seen him yet, his arms were crossed over his chest and a warm smile on his face. “Can you believe that hillbilly chump has a collection like this?”

 

Jasper shook his head, slowly. He was looking around the room with wide eyes. Clowns were absolutely terrifying to him, so this was like a strange nightmare and he have expected the sad clowns to climb out of their paintings.

 

“Someday all of these are gonna be mine.” Stanley said confidently. “C’mon, I’ll show you the one we’re here to get.”

 

Jasper was quite keen on following him to the back of the room, away from the majority of the sad clown paintings. Stanley stopped in front of a large painting that had a clown with bright red lips and blue circles on his cheeks, his eyes outlined in black with comically large eyelashes painted on his eyelids. The ruffle around his neck was drooping sadly and his costume was dingy and worn.

 

“What’dya think?” Stanley asked.

 

“Well, I’ll be honest, clowns scare the hell out of me.” Jasper sighed, but upon Stanley’s almost crestfallen expression, he added, “But I do appreciate how well they were done. It was obvious that the artist took a lot of time to paint these.”

 

“It’s nice to meet someone who appreciates these like I do.” Stanley nodded, looking as if he accepted that explanation. “Well, let’s get this thing off the wall and outta here.”

 

Jasper found himself sort of distracted as Stanley got to work removing the Klouneng painting down off the wall. There were so many clowns. He felt like he was being watched by every single one of them and it scared him to death. But not as much as sudden hands on his shoulders did.

 

“Boo!” 

 

Jasper let out an honest to God shriek, swinging his arm backwards as he turned in order to try and swat off whoever was on him. After a moment of calming down from his panic he reached up and grasped the hands on his shoulders and opened his eyes.

 

“Was that supposed to hurt me?”

 

Jasper found himself a little distracted, one hand on Stanley‘s arm and the other on top of his hand. He wasn’t exactly shocked that he had a lot of muscle, but it was definitely more than he honestly expected, even though he had seen him wandering around in a white wife beater. Stanley laughed, and Jasper realized he was proud of scaring the life out of him.

 

“You need those boxing tips more than I thought.” Stanley teased. “You couldn’t defend yourself from a fly with moves like that.”

 

Jasper let out a shaky laugh, but he nodded. It didn’t really help the situation was different than any situation he would usually find himself in when having to fight someone off, but he knew that Stanley was right. But then he realized, quite suddenly, that he was sort of feeling up the older man’s arm.

 

“Uh,” Jasper mumbled, his ears hot once again, and his cheeks were slowly heating up as well, “sorry about that.”

 

He pulled his hands away a little faster than he usually would and Stanley chuckled, but Jasper was almost shocked to see that Stanley was blushing all the way up to his ears just as he was.

 

“N-No problem, kid.” 

 

Then an he cleared his throat, and the silence between the both begin to grow awkward before it was interrupted by a sound from upstairs. Jasper shot Stanley an alarm luck. The house was supposed to be empty. He froze up as he heard footsteps crossing toward the door to the basement. And that was when it was apparent that Stanley heard them too. But his expression was more one of indignation than anything else. He quickly took Jasper by the arm, whispering into his ear a small plan as he drug him over to the entrance of the clown room.

 

“As soon as he comes in here, shut the door and I’ll shove these boxes in front.”

 

Jasper nodded just as a line of light from the top of the stairs bloomed into a wide swath. Both of the men ducked behind a wall near the door that would lead them to their freedom, one corner of the painting was stabbing Jasper in the ribs, but he wasn’t really concerned about that at the moment.

 

“Who’s down there?”

 

A pair of slippers and feet came down the wooden steps ahead of them, and when their owner noticed that the light was on, he held something along and gun-shaped out in front of himself.

 

“Pines, if that’s you, I swear to God I’m really gonna shoot you this time.”

 

Shoot? Gun-shaped? Jasper knew exactly what that meant, but his mind was taking a surprisingly long time to catch up with the realization. But he didn’t really have a chance to focus because Stanley nudged him, jabbing a thumb toward the door that would lead outside and he jerked his head toward it.

 

Jasper took a step out from behind the wall, taking Stanley‘s hand in his own and pulling him into a jog and soon into a run, the two of them scrambling up the concrete steps out into the cool night air as a voice shouted swears after them. But stay on muffle them by kicking the door shut on his way out, and there was a startled yelp behind them as it made contact with the owner of the house. There was more swearing, but Jasper lost it all behind him as he ran, flashlight in one hand and Stanley‘s hand in the other.

 

When the two of them reached the tree line, Jasper parted and maneuvered his way through bushes and brambles, Stanley crashing through them behind him. As they ran, a deafening gunshot went off behind them and Jasper quickly realized that they were being chased.

 

“Holy smokes!” Stanley yelled, “Run for it, Jasper!”

 

The noises got closer, close enough that he could hear the pursuer swearing continually and loudly. Jasper slowed ever so slightly, flashing his light behind him and raising the beam to find the distant but visibly enraged man with a rifle in his hands. Acting on pure instinct, Jasper threw the flashlight in the direction of the angry man and took off running again. After a brief moment, he heard the man cry out in the sound of the pursuit faded with one final cry:

 

“Damn you, Pines!”

 

Despite the situation, Stanley cackled. “Sounds like you hit him!”

 

Jasper reached the car first, quickly sliding into the passenger seat as Stanley slipped the new painting into the backseat before joining him in the front. Both of them were panting and huffing and Stanley hurriedly started the engine and pulled out. At the next driveway, Stanley did probably the fastest three point turn Jasper had ever seen in his life and then peeled off down the gravel road and screeched out onto the highway.

 

Jasper wasn’t really focused enough to hear the triumphant laughter from Stanley. As well as his heart absolutely racing in his chest and the adrenaline very slowly trickling out of his system, he was in pain. His chest felt like it was being constructed by an anaconda or something, and he knew exactly why. He leaned forward, trying to catch his breath, but with every deep breath that he took in, the tightening sensation continued. It was burning.

 

“I thought he was gonna catch me this time for sure!” Stanley cried with another laugh, but it was soon cut off when he noticed Jasper. “Hey, you alright, kid?”

 

“Yeah,” Jasper breathed out, huffing a little and leaning forward a bit, his eyes squeezed shut, “just… just give me a moment.”

 

It wasn’t like he could really adjust himself sitting in the passenger seat of a car with a man. So he knew that he would have to wait. He did his best to shallow out his breathing again, his heart still racing.

 

“Okay,” he said after a moment, “alright, I’m good.”

 

“Havin’ an asthma attack or somethin’?” Stanley asked, looking at Jasper again.

 

“Something like that.” Jasper chuckled weakly and then frowned, looking at him. “Were we just shot at?”

 

It was obvious that Stanley didn’t by his excuse or change of subject, but he still nodded and chuckled a little bit. He was apparently pretty pleased that neither of them actually got shot. He let out a long and loud sigh, his white-knuckled hands at ten and two on the steering wheel.

 

“Yeah, that was… holy moly.” Stanley breathes, but then spared Jasper another look. “You sure you’re okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Jasper nodded, sitting upright again and letting out a brief sigh. “yeah, I’m good. Just a little shaky.”

 

“I thought you said you had a record.” Stanley raised an eyebrow teasingly.

 

“For trespassing and underage drinking, not breaking and entering and being almost shot!” Jasper exclaimed.

 

Stanley laughed at that as he pulled back out onto the highway. He was heading back in the direction that they came from and the inside of the car lapsed into silence. After a little while, Stanley started humming along with the radio again. Jasper knew the song as well, and he sang it quietly under his breath - he missed the look that Stanley was giving him, which was a mixture of worry and admiration.

 

The ‘welcome’ sign for Gravity Falls passed them again, but the route that Stanley was taking didn’t seem to lead back to the shack. Instead, they came to a stop outside of rows and rows of used cars. A car dealership. 

 

When they pulled in, Stanley slid out of the car, withdrawing something from the pocket within the breast of his jacket. Jasper opened the door, but didn’t get out of the car. But he did realize that what Stanley was holding was a cigar.

 

“You mind if I smoke?” He asked.

 

“Nah, go ahead.” Jasper waved off his concern and closed his eyes for a moment. “I would too if I had a cig with me.”

 

”Thanks.” Stanley said. “I don’t like smokin’ around the kids, y’know? I’m already a bad enough influence.”

 

“Yeah you are.”   
  


 

Stanley chuckled at that and withdrew a pack of matches from his pocket, and Jasper noticed that his face was bathed in the light of the flame for a moment. As Stanley surveyed the lot, Jasper could only keep his eyes closed and kept leaning back. He opened his eyes after a moment. When he noticed that the man wasn’t looking, he slid his thumbs up his shirt and adjusted himself. It was like he could breathe again.

 

He knew that this wasn’t over, but he did hope that the car dealership was the last stop before heading back home.

 

Home.

 

He called the Mystery Shack ‘home’.


	8. Chapter 8

“So,” Jasper finally got out of the car, twisting slightly to pop his back once he was standing, “What are we getting?”

 

“New drive belt, some spark plugs,” Stanley listed, “a couple other things I can’t remember the name of it and aren't worth explainin’.”

 

“It won’t take all night, though, right?” Jasper asked, truly hoping this was their last stop.

 

Stanley shook his head, taking a long drive from the cigar, smoke rolling off his lips and into the night. Jasper couldn’t help but stare. Maybe it was the fact that he was jealous that he didn’t have a cigarette on him so he could smoke too, but with the way that his stomach twisted as he watched the older man, he realized that it was something completely different. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

 

Jasper leaned back against the front bumper of the car next to them and stuff his hands in the pocket of his jacket. There wasn’t really any light pollution around there, so the stars were bright and numerous above their heads. It was weird to see the stars again. And Jasper realized, providing that his car actually got fixed up properly, it wouldn’t really turn out to be such a bad but brief rest stop.

 

He took in a small breath through his nose. The smell of the sweet and rich cigar smoke and crisp night air filled his lungs. He would’ve liked to take in a much deeper breath, but he also didn’t want to suffocate again.

 

“So how are we doing this?” He asked after a moment.

 

“We gotta get rid of the lights.” He said with a small smile. “I doubt Bud’s clever enough to have night vision cameras.”

 

He laughed a little as he spoke, little puffs of smoke blowing out into the night with each individual laugh. ”But, we cut the power to the whole place and the cameras are going to be gone anyways.“

 

Jasper nodded as Stanley explained the plan - “So we cut the power, find a car the same make and model as yours, and I dig out the parts your car needs. An hour, maybe an hour and a half, tops.”

 

“I can get the lights.” Jasper said.

 

Stanley turned his head to look at Jasper, weaving away a fresh cloud of smoke as he accidentally exhaled it in his direction. But Jasper didn’t mind. He had never smoked a cigar before, but the smell of it made it slightly tempting.

 

“You sure?” He raised an eyebrow.

 

“Yeah, I got it.” Jasper said, slightly confident. “If there’s anything I know how to do, it’s shut off the light.”

 

He smiled a little, pleased with the way that Stanley reacted. He noticed the tips of his ears going read at the comment, the insinuation obviously not missing him in the slightest. But after a moment, he bent down and ground the cigarette onto the cold asphalt and straightened with a groan and a huff of laughter.

 

“Yeesh,” he mumbled, rubbing his lower back and still smiling, “startin’ to remember why I quit doin’ this kinda thing.” but then he looked at Jasper with a raised eyebrow. “You sure you’re alright with this, kid? You know… robbing the place.”

 

“You don’t think I can do it?” Jasper asked, mimicking his raised brow.

 

”No, no, that’s not it.” He said with the shake of his head. “You’ve been keeping up with me just fine all night. You just don’t seem like you have a lot of experience here.”

 

“I think I’ve gotten plenty of experience tonight alone.“ Jasper chuckled, giving him a big and slightly goofy grin.

 

Stanley gave him a smile, and it was a warm and genuine expression that ignited something ridiculously fuzzy and soft inside of Jasper. He didn’t notice he was even staring until Stanley turned away and moved toward the trunk. He reached into the car and pull the lever under the driver side of the front seat and the trunk popped open. Just were followed him over to it and after rummaging around the contents for a minute, Stanley brought out a pair of pliers.

 

“Alright, you go over there and take care of the lights.” Stanley said, handing him the pliers. “I’ve got a few things to get together.”

 

Jasper crouched down behind the fence when he finally reached the lot, scrambling over in the shadows until he reached the dealership’s main building. With a peek over the edge, he noticed that the wall of the building was cast in shadow from a poorly-placed streetlight. Another perk and he spotted a car that was the same make and model of his own near the back of the lot, near a sign that said ‘Discount Section! Big Deals!’ in bold lettering.

 

It took an embarrassing amount of effort for Jasper to get over the fence, but he managed it and pressed himself flat against the wall, inching toward the fuse box. It’s locked, but he prided open with the pliers and looked over what was inside;  a bunch of switches and some wires. 

 

Jasper hesitated. He probably should’ve asked Stanley what exactly he needed to do. But instead, he simply took his time. He made sure to read all of the labels and to poke around in the box before deciding to just flip the biggest switch he could find. He held his breath for a minute, but let out a sigh of relief as the entire property went dark. He slipped the pliers into his back pocket and took a look around just to make sure the power was completely out.

 

With a satisfied nod, he wandered out into the parking lot again, knocking his shins on three separate cars before he figured out that he should probably just stop wandering around and wait for Stanley.

 

“Where ya at, kid?” Stanley’s voice echoed through the lot.

 

Jasper felt his way around an SUV, and then some other sort of car. The gravel in the parking lot crunched under his feet and he reflexively stared down at the ground ahead of him as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. Out of head, a flashlight caught his eye and scanned it a lot until it found him.

 

“Found ya.” Stanley smiled.

 

He sounded sort of amused, and Jasper realized that it was probably at the way he was standing with his arms spread wide over a sleek and modern sports car.

 

“Gettin’ familiar with the merchandise, yeah?” Stanley chuckled.

 

“I could only dream of buying something like this.” Jasper chuckled, giving the hood of the car a light pat.

 

Stanley grinned a little bit. “You see anything the same make as yours before you shut the lights off?”

 

“Yeah, there’s one back in the discount section.” Jasper said and then frowned. “My car’s not even that old.”

 

Stanley handed him the flashlight and Jasper slowly started to back toward the discount car section. His car was only from like, 2008. Why was it a discount car? To be fair, his car currently looked like it should’ve been turned into scrap metal, but that was because of Stanford. Otherwise, it was completely reliable. He was in deep thought about how annoying it was that his car was classified a discount car when suddenly he had hands on his ribs.

 

“Gotcha!” 

 

“Fuck!” 

 

Jasper shrieked again, but it was also mixed with a laugh because he was unbearably ticklish. But this time his reaction was a bit stronger, as he threw back an elbow and heard Stanley let out a cry and suddenly a crunch of gravel came next. Jasper whipped around and his eyes widened in shock.

 

“Holy smokes.” Stanley was on the ground, his hand kept over his face and blood was dripping out from between his glove fingers. “Yeah... I deserved that one.”

 

“Oh, fuck,” Jasper knelt down, looking at him and wishing he had a way to help him. “I didn’t, uh, Jesus, I’m sorry!”

 

“I’ll be alright, just help me up.”

 

Jasper talked the still-lit flashlight into his pocket for a moment and stood up, reaching down and finding his hand in the dark to pull him up. Once he was on his feet again, Jasper retrieved the flashlight from the pocket of his jacket. As he brought the beam to Stanley’s face he realized that he was holding a handkerchief over his nose and squinting. Apparently he had brought a backpack with him and it was sitting on the ground where he dropped it.

 

“You know, that was a really solid hit.” Stanley sounded sort of proud and also very pained. “You’ve got a lotta power in there. I dunno if you were just sayin’ it to be nice earlier, but I could really show you some moves. Teach you how to distract that strength.”

 

“Well, you grab my ribs and of course I’m going to hit harder than normal.” Jasper scoffed, but then smiled a bit. “That would actually be cool. I’m game.”

 

Stanley remove the handkerchief from his nose for a moment, gently prodding at the bridge of it with the finger and he frowned. “Well.. s’not broken, that’s for sure.”

 

“That’s… good.” Jasper chuckled awkwardly.

 

“But if I get that kinda reaction when I grab your ribs, I’ll be damned if I don’t use that against you.” Stanley winked at him with a laugh.

 

Jasper felt his face and ears flush. “Do  _ not. _ ”

 

Stanley laughed again, quietly. He took a clean corner of the handkerchief and dad is nose with it, grimacing and sniffling hard when it came back still clean. “Alright, good to go.”

 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Jasper asked again, looking worried.

 

“Yeah.” Stanley smiled. “I’ve gotten worse beatings than that, believe me.”

 

His face was flushed from the sudden injury, but Jasper noted that he did look okay otherwise, so he side and planted his hands on his hips. “Then let’s finish this.”

 

Stanley reached out toward Jasper, but he stopped when he caught a glimpse of the blood and reconsidered, wiping his gloves clean as he could with the hankerchief. When they both reached the car that Jasper spotted earlier, Stanley popped open the hood and dropped his pack on the ground next to the bumper, unzipping it to reveal a jumble of various wrenches and tools.

 

“Alright, hold the flashlight steady on the engine and keep an eye out.”

 

Jasper made sure to follow his instructions, keeping the flashlight on the engine but looking around every once in a while, making sure he didn’t see or hear anyone. But it was sort of hard to hear over the slight clinking of the tools. However it didn’t take Stanley long to get what he needed from the car, shutting the hood and setting his pack on it as he stuffed the parts inside of it.

 

“That was quick.” Jasper noted.

 

“Nah, the parts you needed are easy to find. It just takes the right—“

 

“Hey, what’s going on over there? That you, Bud?”

 

The beam of a flashlight found them both, and Stanley turned around quickly, leaving the bag behind himself on the hood. Jasper’s heart dropped into his stomach.

 

”Pines? What the heck happened your face? And what are you doin’ here at… Hey, are you stealing parts again?”

 

“No?”

 

Jasper closed his eyes in a pray to whatever god might exist that they could get out of the situation. But Stanley inching closer to him until their shoulders touched sort of distracted him. Behind him, Stanley pushed the bag into Jasper’s hands before lowering his voice to speak with him.

 

“Run for it. Keep the bag outta sight and toss it into some bushes nearby. I’ll get it later.”

 

Jasper nodded, picking up the bag and holding it behind himself. The flashlight by the road moved closer and he slowly scooted away from the car and backwards.

 

“Hey, you, where are you goin’?”

 

Jasper move backwards a little faster, still keeping the bag out of sight, and when the light left Jasper to check on Stanley, he made a break for it towards the back fence, throwing the bag over it ahead of him. A new voice nearby spoke up and he yelped.

 

“Hey, where you going, burglar? Yer under arrest. For burglary.”

 

There’s a shout from Stanley behind him and then a heavy side, and one of the car alarms start squealing. Jasper was so shocked by the alarm that the second cop got his hands around his wrist and slapped a pair of handcuffs on him.

 

“You better quit yer squirmin’ there, buddy, we caught you fair an’ square.”

 

“Ah, c’mon Blubs, I saved the town from an interdimensional demon, gimmie a break!” Stanley huffed, sounding quite irritated.

 

“Sorry, Stan, we got a job to do.”

 

Stanley grumbled quietly and the man behind Jasper led him toward a road behind Stanley and Blubs, who now had him in handcuffs. Jasper was freaking out and he knew that he needed a way out of this and fast. So he closed the space between him and the cop behind him. Once something moved between his fingers, he grabbed it and brought it back. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like it was cold and metal so he slipped it into his back pocket.

 

“Aw, shoot, Durland, we don’t have the cruiser! Me and my ideas for romantic strolls in the moonlight.”

 

“Well, why don’t we jus’ commander Stan’s car?”

 

“Do you mean ‘commandeer’?”

 

“I dunno!”

 

“Edwin Durland, you are an absolute delight, and I cherish having you as my life partner.”

 

Both cops giggled and Jasper was fairly sure that if he wouldn’t have been the one in handcuffs, he probably would’ve thought it was weirdly endearing. But he didn’t really have a chance to ruminate on that thought, because the two cops pushed him and Stanley into the backseat of Stanley’s own car, crowding them in with the painting. Stanley gripped it protectively, muttering something under his breath about ‘the fuzz’. But he was quiet for most of the ride and only spoke up once.

 

“You okay, Jasper?”

 

“Yeah, I’m alright.”

 

The car was filled with silence after Jasper responded and it stayed that way all the way back to the station.


	9. Chapter 9

Once they finally got to the station, they were lead inside and the officer that Jasper had recognized as Durland lead both of them to a pair of chairs by the desk and Blubs went down the hall. Only a few minutes later did the police officer come back and took Jasper and Stanley down another hallway to a set of cells. At the first one, he withdrew the key set and opened the door. He ushered them both in after uncuffing you both. Jasper jumped at the solid clang of the door shutting and locking behind him.

 

“You two better get comfortable,” Sheriff Blubs said, “we’ll get your prints in the morning.”

 

Stanley grumbled and settle down onto one of the provided bunk beds and Jasper sat down on the one that was next to it. He watched as Stanley peeled half his gloves and talk to them, inside out, into the pocket of his jacket and fiddled with the loose thread on the thin wall blanket that was provided on the bed. Jasper could hear the officers talking at the end of the hallway, but he shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair.

 

Underneath the bright fluorescent lights of the police station, Jasper could see that Stanley still had a bit of blood smeared under his nose and on his chin, and he felt a slight flash of embarrassment when he remembered that he was the one who caused him to bleed like that. But instead of worrying about that yet again, he sighed.

 

“I can’t wait to see how my sister reacts when she finds out that I’ve been arrested.“ Jasper chuckled dryly, looking over at Stanley. “How are we gonna get out of here.”

 

Much to his dismay, Stanley shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest, flopping back onto the mattress. “Don’t think we can, kid. I’ll see if I can convince them that you got hypnotized or somethin’ into comin’ along with me to keep you outta trouble.”

 

”Listen, if you’re going down for this, then so am I.” Jasper looked over at him. “I already have a record anyways, so what’s adding a few more things to the list?”

 

Stanley laughed quietly and propped himself up on his elbows. “You sure you want to get into more trouble with the law?”

 

“Eh,” Jasper shrugged, “I’m not really going anywhere in life anyway. It’s not a huge deal to me.”

 

He didn’t really notice that Stanley was regarding him with a look of, well, even Stanley didn’t really know what he was feeling at that comment. But instead of asking anything, he simply said, “Anyway, the one way we’re getting out of here is with the keys. Then we could just slip out a widow or somethin’.”

 

Jasper pondered something for a moment, reaching his hand into his back pocket and suddenly remembering the thing that he grabbed off of Durland. The small metal object he had nicked from the officer was a set of car keys. It was on some sort of plastic keepsake key fob. Jasper looked over at Stanley and noticed that the man wasn’t looking, he was simply staring down at the floor of the cell instead. But Jasper had an idea of what to do with the keys. He walked up to the bars of the cell, looking for Officer Durland.

 

“Hey, uh, can you hear me out there?” Jasper called from the edge of the bars. “You dropped your car keys!”

 

The faint discussion in the other room stopped, and a moment later, the officer came into view. “Where’d you get my key fob? I’ve been lookin’ fer that.”

 

Jasper held it out through the bars with both hands, but made sure that it was close enough to the bars so he could in act his plan. When Durland reached for the key fob, Jasper reached out to his belt with his opposite hand and unclipped the ring of keys from his belt. Luckily, he didn’t notice. He thanked Jasper for returning the key fob and gave both him and Stanley a scrutinizing stare before heading back down the hallway and through the door.

 

“Hey, Stan,” Jasper turned and jingled the keys triumphantly, looking at the older man with a grin, “look what I got off Durland.”

 

Stanley looked up and found himself staring at Jasper’s hand in disbelief, then at Jasper and then up the keys, and then finally back at him again before laughing incredulously.

 

“Are you sure you don’t have experience with this kinda thing?” He took the keys from Jasper and looked them over in his pond. He smiled at the younger man and then look down at the keys, covering his mouth with his hand and dragging it down over his chin. He was grinning. “I can’t believe I’ve been shown up by a tourist.”

 

“Well, get used to it, old man.” Jasper teased, his tongue between his teeth as he grinned right back, “I’ve got skills.”

 

Stanley looked proud, smiling at him like he just handed him a million bucks. “Well, what’re we waiting for? Let’s get the heck outta here?”

 

He stood as Jasper reach through the bars to try the keys until one of them worked. The door swung open with a quiet creek and both of them crept out down the hallway to the door. He opened it ever so slightly, looking out into the lobby to see that Blubs was asleep at the front desk, Durland not in sight. Slowly, Jasper pulled the door open and moved into the lobby. He only stopped when Stanley tapped his shoulder and whispered,

 

“We gotta get my keys. You see ‘em anywhere?”

 

Jasper glanced around until he spotted them next to where Blubs was sleeping, drool puddling on the table. Of course. He crossed two of his fingers for good luck, and snuck over to the desk. He carefully reached down to grab them when suddenly Blubs stirred, mumbling gibberish that made both of the men freeze. Jasper had no idea what he said, but Stanley snorting made Jasper have to suppress a laugh as he plucked the keys away.

 

“Wait, hold on!”

 

Jasper looked at Stanley in a confused manner as he disappeared into another room. What the hell could he be doing at the moment that was more important than escaping a police station? Before he had the chance to call him something that he wasn’t sure if he would regret later or not, he reappeared in the doorway with the troublesome clown painting under his arm.

 

“Seriously?” Jasper gave him a look.

 

“Duh!” Stanley chuckled and then flashed him a grin. “Alright, let’s roll!”

 

Both of them slipped out with only a small click of the station door closing behind them. Jasper and Stanley climbed into his car and escaped into the darkness. They only stopped once, going back to the dealership to pick up the hidden backpack. Jasper and Stanley headed back to the Shack in a comfortable silence and he was fairly sure that he would’ve felt tired if not for the next round of adrenaline that was going through his body.

 

Jasper carried the backpack and Stanley carried the painting inside, setting both down on the kitchen table. 

 

“I’d call that a successful night.” Stanley said with a nod.

 

“Even though we got arrested and shot at, so would I.” Jasper smiled a little bit. “And fun, too.”

 

Jasper grande over at him and realized, in the bright light of the kitchen, that he still had blood on his face. Jasper was confused as to how he kept forgetting that he was the one who elbowed him.

 

“You’ve got…” Jasper sighed, “well, come here.”

 

He pulled out one of the chairs from the table and gestured for Stanley to sit down. The older man was a little confused, but he obeyed, the chair’s ancient metal frame creaking under his weight. Jasper grabbed a couple paper towels and turn on the faucet in the sink to wet them. He mentally steadied himself for a moment, hoping that he wouldn’t push any boundaries that he didn’t understand. He carefully held the side of his face and neck in his hand. With gentle pressure he guided his head to tilt back until he was lit up fully by the overhead light.

 

He could feel Stanley’s face get warm underneath his hand and he seemed a little too surprised to protest or even speak as jasper carefully wiped the now dried blood from his face. He was quiet as the younger male did this and Jasper could also feel his warm, brown eyes on him. He was watching him clean him up. 

 

“I…” Stanley hesitated. “I coulda taken care of this myself, ya’know.”

 

Jasper looked at him again, stalling his movements. He said that, but he hadn’t pulled away or made any move to leave. “I hit you. The least I could do is clean you up. Anyway, you’ve done plenty as it is.”

 

Jasper noticed that the paper towels he was using became a little too soiled to work with, so he tossed them into the trash and went back to grab a few more. When his hand returned to Stanley‘s cheek, he wondered if he might’ve been imagining things, but the feeling was a little heavier and he could’ve swore that the man was leaning into his touch.

 

“I really did have a good time with you tonight.” Jasper said and then chuckled, “I had no idea more important crimes could be so fun.”

 

Stanley smirked, avoiding Jasper’s gaze. “I, uh, had a good time, too.”

 

Jasper paused for a moment, suddenly realizing something. “Those cops aren’t gonna come after us again, are they?”

 

Stanley shrugged. “Probably not. They’re nice enough guys, but not exactly competent.”

 

Jasper laughed again, quietly and Stanley smirked up at him. For a moment, Jasper just stood there and looked at him, but he managed to make it look like he was just making sure that he was completely finished. He tossed the last paper towels into the trash after a moment.

 

“You’re sure it’s not broken?” He asked.

 

“Nah, I’m fine.” Stanley chuckled. “Don’t worry about.”

 

Jasper found that his hand was lingering on his cheek. He hesitated, but after a moment, he took a small breath and lean to down, wrapping his arms around Stanley. “Thanks. For the car parts and uh… for the good time.”

 

Jasper suddenly worried that he had cross the line with how Stanley was looking at him. So he took a step back, feeling uncomfortable sensation swirling around in his stomach. “Well… goodnight.”

 

But just before he turned around, he saw Stanley give him a goofy smile. “Sleep tight, Jasper.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we go. Things are finally going to pick up more between Stanley and Jasper in the next few chapters! It’s going to be an interesting chapter, though. You better be ready. (;
> 
> Hope you enjoy!
> 
> [TW: Body Dysmorphia]

Jasper retreated to his bedroom. He was exhausted now that the adrenaline was finally wearing off again. He had so many thoughts and so many emotions running through his head. He sat down on the air mattress and grab his phone, moving quickly to text his sister.

  
  
**J:** hey im alive no need to worry

 

Seconds later, a response came. Multiple, actually. And he did his best to respond quickly.

 

**A:** holy shit jasper it’s one in the morning what were you guys doing

**A:** did you do dumb shit

**A:** what happened

**J:** going on on hell of an adventure

**J:** ill talk to you about it when i finally see you, okay? it’s a lot to talk about thru text/over the phone

**A:** fine but i need to know. don’t think ill forget

**J:** love you 

**A:** don’t love you too

 

Jasper said his phone aside again. He was glad that somebody worried about him. But when he thought about it, he remembered how worried Stanley was when he saw Jasper having what he thought was an asthma attack in the passenger seat. 

 

He stood up after a moment, quickly shedding his clothing and looking down at himself. His makeshift binder was digging deep into his skin and he winced when he started to unravel it. The bandaging was tight, much tighter than it probably should’ve been. Once the wrapping fell off of his body, he looked himself over again. There were deep indentations in his skin from where the elastic bandages dug into his sides and underneath his chest. Some spots were slightly bloody and others were already a yellowish-blue. 

 

For a moment, he just stood there and looked at himself. He could feel the usual sick, disgusted feeling settle into a stomach and just observing what he had made him nauseous. He didn’t know what to say to himself to make it feel like he was the way he wanted to be, mainly because there was nothing he could say. He had no idea what to do.

 

So he slipped on a pair of sweatpants, which were baggy and large - the strings were tied tightly so that they would stay up on his narrow frame. And he found himself looking down at his chest again and he felt his eyes start to tear up. Why did he look so gross? He was disgusting. 

 

“Hey, Jasper, I—“

 

Jasper whipped around, his arms up and crossed over his chest, eyes wide. He must’ve left the door open a little bit, as he didn’t hear it open in the first place. In the doorway stood Stanley. He was quiet, and Jasper felt his heart sink into his stomach like an anchor into and unsteady sea. Neither of them said anything for a minute. 

 

“Shit, uh—“ Stanley finally looked away, jerking his head to the side and putting a hand up awkwardly. “Sorry, um, I didn’t mean to… yeah.”

 

He backed out and shut the door. Jasper still stood in place, his arms crossed up over his chest. His blood felt cold, even though it was rushing in his ears and he could feel heat on the skin of his cheeks. But he also felt something wet dripping down onto the hot skin and he realized that he was crying, facing the now closed door. 

 

His rational mind told him that Stanley had stumbled in an accident and it really wasn’t anything more than an accident. The rest of his mind, however, assured him that it may have been an accident, but Stanley left because of his body. Because of who he really was and how he would never be able to make himself different, he would never be able to make himself look the way he wanted and he would never feel comfortable in his own body. 

 

Jasper sat down on the bed and let out a quiet sob, his hand coming up to cover his mouth so that he didn’t accidentally wake anyone up or attract attention. He dropped his other hand to the air mattress and didn’t dare look down at himself.

 

_ He ran away because he’s disgusted.  _ His mind spoke to him like a demon hovering over his shoulder, whispering things into his ear.  _ You are a freak. Gross. Look at yourself. _

 

Jasper kept crying, shakily leaning forward to pull a large sweatshirt out of the trash bag. He struggled to pull it on, unable to see anything through the tears in his eyes. He had to feel the edges to make sure that it wasn’t inside out, he had to feel around for the arms of the sweater and the hole that his head was supposed to come out of. 

 

He used one of the sweater sleeves to wipe his eyes, which were already puffy and stinging a little bit. He used his other hand to grab his phone and send another text to his sister.

 

**J:** you awake

 

He was quiet and still as he waited for a response, tears still rolling down his cheeks and a few dripping onto the screen of his phone.

 

**A:** yeah what’s up

**J:** am i disgusting

 

The silence of the Mystery Shack around him only made him feel more vulnerable, and even though there was nothing in the room besides him that had eyes, he felt like he was being looked at from every single angle, like he was in a room full of mirrors at a carnival.

 

**A:** no. you’re perfect

**A:** you’re funny and unique

**A:** remember how ugly you were as a chick

**A:** now that was disgusting

 

Jasper found himself laughing softly. He couldn’t help it. There was something to be said about someone who supported someone else like that, and his sister was definitely that person. And she was the only person that he would ever allow to reference who he used to be. Especially like that. But despite him having a nice laugh, which he needed, he still sort of felt nauseous and a little bit numb.

 

**J:** thanks angie 

**A:** no problem

**A:** now go tf to sleep so i can too

**A:** i have work in the morning

**J:** night 

**A:** night 

 

He tossed his phone aside and laid back on the air mattress. Jasper was beginning to realize just how exhausted he was. Between being chased by a man with a gun and breaking into his house, being thrown into jail and having to escape, and having a mild breakdown, which she was fairly sure wasn’t over yet, he had expended a lot more energy than he had in a very long time.

 

He pulled a blanket around his figure, leaning his head back onto the pillows and letting out a small side. He knew that he’d have to deal with the awkwardness between him and Stanley tomorrow, but maybe the man was old enough that he would forget. If Jasper chuckled at the idea of that. Stanley may have been almost three times his age, maybe more, but he was sharp. Unfortunately, he would probably remember. 

 

Was a small sigh, Jasper rolled over facing the wall, clutching one of the extra pillows in his arms. He knew that it was going to be a rough rest of the night. He knew that he would probably have unfortunate nightmares and hopefully he would wake up the next morning with enough energy to at least function for a little while.

 

It took another hour or so, but eventually Jasper settled into a restless sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, I’m hoping it’s not super obvious, but I’ve never actually written for a trans character before. Please let me know if I do something wrong or say something offensive and I will get right to changing it. I’m doing my best and I really hope that Jasper’s representation doesn’t actually offend anyone. 
> 
> Also, I dropped the rating. I’m probably going to do a sequel to this where things actually get more hot and steamy and intense, mainly so that people who are underage can read this story and feel comfortable doing so. 
> 
> That being said, please enjoy this chapter.

Jasper heard a very loud thump on the door of the storage room that he was sleeping in, which automatically startled him from his rest. He rubbed his eyes, which were still puffy and he realized that he probably cried during the night as well. It wasn’t a surprise.

 

After a moment of getting himself together, still very sleepy, he got up and opened the door, swinging wide. In the doorway was none other than Mabel. She looked very worried.

 

“Jasper, I need your help!” She exclaimed.

 

He was tired, so it took him a minute to look down and noticed that she was holding Waddles, and the poor pig was wearing a top hat and a very small bowtie. It was cute, but also really weird.

 

“Why is Waddles all dressed up?” He asked.

 

“There’s an emergency!” Mabel gasped. “A  _ love _ emergency.”

 

Jasper looked down as Mabel stared up with him with very wide eyes, her little arms unmoving as Waddles attempted to escape her firm grasp. She was really strong for a kid, wasn’t she? But knowing Mabel, the situation could mean that she had a new crush or she desperately wants to wed Waddles to some poor, unsuspecting critter outside

 

“Waddles and Gompers are renewing their vows today and I can’t find Gompers to put his gown on!” Mabel looked up at Jasper. “You gotta help me find him!”

 

Jasper was both surprised and very on surprised that his second guess was correct. “Okay, wait, Mabel, just calm down for a sec—“

 

“But we have to find Gompers!” She whined. “The ceremony’s in twenty minutes!”

 

All of the sudden, Waddles managed to wiggle himself free and ran down the hallway to freedom, ignoring how Mabel shrieked in protest and chased after him. Jasper could only stand there for a minute, slightly confused, before shutting the door to his room and changing quickly. When he came out, he caught the sight of Mabel leaping over Dipper, who was sitting on the floor with a large array of graph paper and chewed-on pencils. She ran to the back door after the pig, yelling at him not to lose his tie.

 

“Wh—Mabel! What’s going on?” Dipper exclaimed.

 

“Something about a wedding between Waddles and Gompers?” Jasper looked slightly confused.

 

Dipper smacked her hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face dramatically. “Of course.. she told me they’re ‘renewing vows’ or something. They got married last summer, but she misses the ‘pizazz’ of weddings.”

 

Dipper appeared to be sort uninterested, but Jasper could tell that he was also a tiny bit invested. It was a kid thing, he knew. His little sister was the same way.

 

“Are you going to help her with…Whatever that was?” Dipper asked.

 

“I don’t even know what’s going on.” Jasper admitted with a sigh, but nodded all the same.

 

“Yeah, that’s Mabel for you.” Dipper shrugged. “But it’s her thing, I guess.”

 

There was a moment of silence between the young teenager and the older teenager before Dipper spoke up.

 

“I’ll help if you do.”

 

“Thanks, Dipper.”

 

And with that, Dipper and Jasper both made their way outside. Mabel was already a ways away from the shack when they finally made it outside. Unfortunately Stanley and Stanford were nowhere in sight. Jasper was not exactly sure what they’d think of him if they found him searching for a  _ goat bride _ , as Mabel calls out to lure Gompers home.

 

“C’mon, Gompers!” Mabel yelled. “I already booked the second honeymoon and the caterers are going to be mad! Runaway brides are so cliché!”

 

“Gompers?” Jasper called out awkwardly, “C’mon, goat… pal… Where are you?”

 

Jasper noticed that Dipper was heading toward his sister to help her look, so Jasper went the opposite direction, opting to look in a different place for the runaway goat bride. It didn’t take him that long to find him. He looked up onto the roof of the shack and quickly saw the goat was munching on part of the weathervane.

 

“Hey, Mabel!” He called out. “Think I found him!”

 

Once she spotted the goat, she shrieked and sprinted into the gift shop, slamming the door so hard that the ‘open’ sign flipped to ‘closed’. There was a moment of silence and Jasper looked up at the go to guy and when he heard another noise, which happened to be Mabel popping out from something that flipped open on the roof’s small balcony. She climbed up and attempted to coax the goat down.

 

“There’s a ladder up to the little balcony thing inside the gift shop,” Dipper explained, noticing how confused and slightly worried Jasper looked, “it’s pretty cool for fireworks.”

 

Jasper nodded, but was a little more focused on watching Mabel. She pulled a sandwich from her sleeve and waved at Gompers and he trotted toward the balcony, hopping down to Mabel’s level and snatching the sandwich from her hand. She swiftly grabbed the goat and headed back down the ladder into the gift shop. And she came back out of the gift shop with a kick to open the door.

 

“Oh, Gompers,” she said with a smile. “you can’t get the pre-wedding jitters anymore — you’re already married! You can’t get away that easy. Thanks Jasper! You’ve saved the wedding!”

 

And with that, Mabel got to work on wrestling Gompers and was dressed, yelling commands to Dipper to grab Waddles and get everything ready for the most important ceremony in the history of ever. Jasper was on ashamed to say that he had his phone out and was taking the occasional picture of them. They were adorable. Even though it was pretty obvious that Dipper wasn’t as invested as Mabel was - he was still trying to help for her sake. 

 

“Okay!” Mabel said confidently. “Once Dip gets Waddles, I think we got everything ready. I am, of course, the vicar-caterer-proud-mother-musical-guest-combo. Dipper’s gonna take pictures for my scrapbook—“

 

“Hey, I never agreed to that!” Dipper exclaimed.

 

“Dipper, please?” Mabel drawled out, hands clasped together. “I’ve gotta office-shin-are—“

 

“Do you mean ‘officiate’?” Dipper frowned.

 

“See?!” She said, “I’m so busy I can’t even talk right! Please Dipper? I’ll help you with some nerd thing later, I pinky swear!”

 

Deborah contemplates the offer, a hand at his chin. Jasper had to grin when he noticed that! again, he was mirroring his Grunkle Stanford. “... Aslong as you actually do help me this time, then yeah, I’ll take pictures.”

 

Mabel jumped up and down with excitement, jostling poor Gompers in her arms. “Yay! Thank you Dipper, I owe you one this is what the best brother looks like right here, Jasper.”

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He chuckled.

 

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel gasped suddenly, hands on her cheeks. “Soos left already! We don’t have a ring-bearer! What are we gonna do, Gompers?”

 

Jasper almost sighed as Mabel turned to him with a set of extremely pleading eyes. “Hey, Jasper.. could you be the new ring-bearer for the ceremony?

 

“It would give me no greater honor.” He chuckled, putting his thumbs into the pocket of his blue jeans.

 

Mabel beamed at him. “Thank you, Jasper! Let’s get this show on the road! Or this wedding in the backyard… It still works.”

 

He watched as Mabel ran back into the house, her speed on rivaled. She came back quickly afterwards with a fluffy purple pillow and two clear sticks. Jasper was confused until she snapped the sticks and he realized that they were glow sticks. She curled up in the small bracelet sized rings. He already knew what they were for and that was possibly the cutest thing he felt like he had ever seen.

 

“These are so much more fun than rings!” Mabel said happily. “Plus Waddles can put it on his tail to look super handsome!”

 

“If I ever get married,” Jasper nodded, “I want a glow stick headband.”

 

“Ooh, that’d be cute!” Mabel agreed and then said, “Hold your hands out, palm up! And get down so you’re not as tall, they can’t put the rings on each other if you’re way up there.“

 

Jasper noticed that she had a point. He got to his knees in the dirt and crossed his legs, and Mabel turned his hands palm up for him and reverently place to the pillow and the glow stick rings on top of them.

 

“Okay, Mabel, I’ve got the camera for…” Dipper looked at Jasper with a raised eyebrow. “Jasper, why are you on the ground?”

 

Jasper gestured to the happy couple. “They needed a ring-bearer.”

 

“I guess they do.” Dipper nodded after a moment.

 

Mable nodded, her small hands on her hips. She looked over at the wedding scene and mumbled to herself, checking things off and obviously mental checklist. Suddenly, she turned and darted back into the house without an explanation of what she was doing. And after a moment, deeper side and mumbled something about not having a roll of empty film in the camera, so he went inside as well. This left Jasper alone with Waddles and Gompers, and two glow sticks. 

 

“Uh…” He mumbled, “I’m very.. happy for you both. I think.”

 

He was glad that he stops talking, especially when he heard two voices coming from the house. Two very familiar voices. He already knew that he was about to be extremely embarrassed, so Jasper took in a breath as the two men stepped out of the house. He leaned back, bracing himself on both of his hands as the older men looked at him, quite confused and in silence.

 

“Mabel needed a ring-bearer for the wedding.” Jasper looked away, his face quickly heating up.

 

It’s at that very moment, thankfully, that Mabel kicked open the back door and ran to his side, throwing rose petals everywhere, including on top of Jasper’s head. “Ta-dah!”

 

Jasper blue rose petal off of the tip of his nose and grin that Mabel, both amused by her exuberance and thankful that she showed up when she did so it was a little less awkward. “I think the bride and groom are ready to renew their vows. Don’t you?”

 

Mabel nodded empathetically before turning to Stanford and Stanley, lighting up with a hundred watt smile that could probably warm even the coldest of hearts. 

 

“Yes!” She exclaimed. “Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford, you guys got back just in time!”

 

Just like that, Mabel pushed Stanford and Stanley toward Jasper and tugged at their hands so they could sit across from him. Stanley complained about his knee and Stanford asked Dipper, who had finally returned, exactly why the pig and the goat are betrothed. Jasper realized that him and the two older men were pretty much on the same wavelength mentally as to what was going on.

 

Jasper looked over at Stanley, and found that the older man was looking at him, not intently, but in a way that definitely made Jasper uncomfortable. So he looked away again, down to his lap. He knew that he would have to face him sooner or later after what had happened, but he really wasn’t looking forward to it. And there they were, sitting across from each other at the wedding of a pig and a goat.

 

As the fake wedding started, Mabel would stifle a theatrical sob and would wipe a ‘very real’ tear from her eye before she turned to Jasper for the rings.

 

“Uh, Mabel?” Jasper raised an eyebrow. “How should the, um, betrothed wear their rings? They don’t have ring fingers.”

 

“Just put ‘em where you think they fit best!”

 

Jasper looked at Waddles and Gompers for a minute, contemplating what he was going to do. But after a minute, he leaned forward and put one around one of the goat's horns and one around the pig’s tail. 

 

“I now pronounce you husband and husband!” Mabel cried. “Again!”

 

“You may now kiss… each other, I guess.” Jasper had to chuckle, leaning back once more.

 

Jasper watched as Wardles sniffed at Gompers and snorted. That definitely counted in his book. He redirected his attention to the kids as Dipper reappeared again with a new camera, Mabel through some rose petals at him. A few got stuck to his fluffy hat and he rolled his eyes, but retaliated by taking a very close-up picture, the flash temporarily blinding her.

 

“Hey, save the film for the renewed-ly-weds!” Mabel said, “I need plenty of pictures for my scrapbook!”

 

“You owe me a new camera for this, Mabel.” 

 

Dipper smiled a little and he sounded annoyed, but the find look on his face gave him away and he started taking pictures of the happy couple, getting in some odd angles as Mabel pushed them into forceful but silly poses. For a moment, Jasper just watched them. He sort of missed the times when he was younger, playing with his older sister outside and doing dumb but fun things that gave him great memories. 

 

After a moment, however, he got up and brushed off his jeans the best he could. He was thirsty and he realized, when his stomach growled, that he hadn’t eaten that morning. He went to head back into the house, but Stanley and Stanford stopped him before he could make it to the door.

 

“Hey, Jasper,” Stanley’s voice made Jasper instinctively wince a little and he looked at him. “thanks for playin’ along with Mabel with the whole.. wedding thing.”

 

“We’re both glad you’re willing to entertain her whenever we’re gone.” Stanford added.

 

“She didn’t, uh, make you do it, did she?” Stanley asked with a little cringe.

 

“Nah,” Jasper chuckled, “she needed a ring-bearer, so I stepped up to help.”

 

Both of the older men seemed rather confused, but Jasper just smiled. “I’m very invested in the marriage of a goat and a pig, you know.”

 

That made the three of them all laugh and Stanford gave him a warm smile, but Jasper felt Stanley’s hand on his shoulder and his gut begin to churn. But he kept his own smile to brush off his feelings of discomfort.

 

“Well, I’m glad you’re as into all that as she is.” Stanford chuckled. “Thank you for that.”

 

“Yeah, kid,” Stanley nodded, “it’s nice of ya to be, uh, nice to her, y’know.”

 

Jasper good sense that Stanley was ever so slightly awkward as well, especially as Stanford walked away and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh… thanks. For playin’ with Mabel and her weird wedding thing. Looks like she likes you. S’not hard, but still.”

 

“It’s no problem, really.” Jasper shrugged a bit, but gave him a big smile. “My older sister and I used to play like that too, and my little sister loved to drag me into games and stuff. It’s not a big deal.”

 

Stanley nodded at Jasper, and the younger man automatically noticed that he was pink in the cheeks. He turned and walked past him, heading into the house. Jasper swore that he saw Stanford give Stanley a funny look, but Jasper figured that it was really none of his business.

 

“Hey, Jasper, you’re gonna miss the party!” Mabel said suddenly and excitedly. “We got popsicles!”

 

“I call the red ones!” Dipper exclaimed.

 

“Pineapple ones are mine, I call dibs!” Stanley said, grinning.

 

“But the pineapple ones are the best ones!” Mabel gasped.

 

Jasper laughed as Mabel and Stanley wrestled over a yellow popsicle while dipper contentedly unwrapped one of the red ones, holding it above his head and out of the suddenly interested Gompers’ way. Stanford grabbed a purple ice pop carefully and held the chest open for Jasper. The younger male grabbed a blue one happily. But when Stanley and Mabel weren’t looking, Jasper started to hide the pineapple popsicles at the bottom of the chest and Dipper started laughing, but he didn’t say anything.

 

It was going to be a good day.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get real heavy in this chapter.
> 
> [ TW: Implied/Referenced Transphobia + Implied/Referenced Child Abuse + Body Dysmorphia + Implied/Referenced Self Harm ]

The next day was fairly slow. There wasn’t really that much to do. Stanford and Dipper were out of the house, apparently going on a trek to try and see if they could catch another sighting of Bigfoot. Mabel was over at a friends place and Soos had the day off - the Mystery Shack was closed on Sundays. Jasper had no idea where Stanley was at, but he still felt a little too awkward to actually approach him.

 

He knew that the right thing and the mature thing to do was to go and talk to him about what happened. But the fact that he was so uncomfortable with his own body made the idea of bringing that up to a man that he sort of knew but not really was absolutely terrifying and he wanted to avoid that for as long as he could. Stanley didn’t really seem like a touchy-feely sort of person and that meant he would be even more awkward if Jasper tried to talk to him about it.

 

But Jasper couldn’t deny that he had a few questions. Mainly that he wanted to know just how much Stanley actually knew or understood about what Jasper was wearing. He was fairly sure that the man had come from a time where being transgender didn’t probably actually have any sort of good reputation and it was probably considered taboo, or something equally weird. Hell, maybe he was one of the people who….

 

He shook the thought away when he began to feel nauseous. Stanley didn’t look like the kind of person who would hate somebody just because they were finally being who they really were inside. He hoped, anyway. It would sort of put a damper on being there, especially because some older people were absolutely unpredictable about it. 

 

He wrung his hands together as he sat at the kitchen table, picking his phone with one hand. He tilted the chair back a bit as he started to play whatever game appealed to him at the moment, texting his sister off and on. 

 

“Hey, Jasper?” 

 

Jasper jolted at the sound of the voice, leaning forward so that his chair was on the floor properly. He looked over to the doorway and saw Stanley standing there. He swallowed a knot in his throat so that he could reply.

 

“Yeah, uh, what’s up?”

 

“Can I, uh, talk to you about somethin’?” 

 

And there it was. Jasper knew that they were going to talk about the moment where Stanley accidentally stumbled into his room. He could tell by how uncomfortable the man seemed to be. But all the same, Jasper gestured to the opposite him and Stanley walked over to it. The younger male set his phone aside and sighed softly, crossing his arms a bit as Stanley sat down. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them.

 

“About yesterday—“

 

“I’m so sorry, I—“

 

They both stopped and looked at each other. Jasper had to smile ever so slightly and Stanley chuckled a little. It was good confirmation that they were both very nervous, saying something at the exact same time like that. But then Stanley let out a sigh and the brief amusement fizzled out.

 

“I just… I wanted to say sorry for walkin’ in on you.” Stanley said, rubbing the back of his neck. “And, uh, starin’ like I did.”

 

“It’s… it’s okay.” Jasper chuckled, shaking his head and smiling, uncomfortable and awkward. “Accidents happen.”

 

“But I also wanted to ask you somethin’.”

 

“Uh, alright.”

 

Jasper could feel his stomach starting to bubble with fear and his throat felt like it was blocked by something. He wanted to cry, but he wasn’t at the point of emotional disturbance just yet where he would. His hands, which were hidden by how he crossed his arms, were shaking a little bit. Would he make him go and stay in a motel? Would he not fix his car? Would he yell at him? Tell him how gross he was?

 

“What are you usin’ to bind?”

 

Instantly, all of Jasper’s fears disappeared and left him empty and confused. “Huh?”

 

“Y’know, what are you wrappin’ yourself up with?” 

 

“..... Ace bandages.” Jasper said cautiously.

 

“I figured.” Stanley looked oddly disappointed, and worried, which made Jasper tilt his head - this was absolutely not where he thought the conversation would go. “Using that stuff for binding can kill you. Seriously.”

 

Jasper went quiet, suddenly finding that his lap was a little more interesting than Stanley. 

 

“I know.” His voice was quiet.

 

“Then why do you keep doin’ it, kid?” 

 

Jasper felt his face flush with shame. “It… it’s the only thing that makes me look right.”

 

A silence filled the kitchen that Jasper really didn’t like. He was confused as to why Stanley wasn’t acting in a vicious or angry way, but almost reprimanding him. He was also ashamed to admit that he was doing something to his body that could literally kill him, and Jasper was well aware of that.

 

“C’mon.” Stanley got up suddenly, looking at Jasper.

 

For a moment, the younger male hesitated to follow. But he managed to make his legs work again and he trailed after him sort of like a kicked puppy. He felt more ashamed than he did anything else. And he hated that feeling, next to guilt, it was the worst feeling ever. 

 

He was guided into the bathroom and Stanley opened a medicine cabinet. Jasper sat down on the lid of the toilet, watching him curiously. After a moment of searching, Stanley withdrew a roll of something and turned to him.

 

“This is somethin’ called ‘KT Tape’,” he said, offering the roll, “it’s used for injuries and junk. It may not be the safest, but it’s better than wrappin’ yourself up with something that can kill ya.”

 

Jasper careful he took it from his hands, looking it over. It was beige in color and it almost felt like paper, but not quite. He looked up at Stanley for a minute.

 

“How…?”

 

“Do I know this stuff?” Stanley finished with a chuckle, leaning against the counter. “I’ve met a few.”

 

Something about the way that Stanley didn’t say ‘transgender’ or ‘trans’ or anything along those lines made Jasper happy. He was still a little surprised that Stanley was helping him like this, as people usually didn’t like to get involved. Especially older people. 

 

“Uh, I also… noticed you have some cuts.” Stanley said after a moment, looking a little awkward. “When I.. when I saw you the other night.”

 

“Yeah.” Jasper nodded, his voice still quiet. “The bandages get really tight.”

 

“I don’t mean those ones.”

 

Another wave of silence washed over the small room. Jasper didn’t look up from the bandaging in his hands. He knew that Stanley was staring at him, watching. He knew that the man was hoping he didn’t overstep any boundaries that he wasn’t aware of, and Jasper really didn’t know what to say for a moment.

 

“They’re old.” 

 

“I can tell.”

 

More silence. But after a little while, Stanley sighed.

 

“You said you were headin’ to your sister’s place before you wrecked.” Stanley said. “Why?”

 

Jasper slowly moved to wrap his arms around himself. “My parents kicked me out.”

 

After a second, Jasper looked up at Stanley and noticed that the older man looked sort of conflicted. He was standing straight, very tense, with his hands in fists. But he also had that sort of familiar look in his eyes that Jasper remembered seeing when the man had noticed his trash bag full of belongings. 

 

“I’m guessin’ for—“

 

“For being useless,” Jasper cut him off. “for not wanting to go to college, for smoking and drinking and partying, and for not being their…”

 

He closed his eyes tightly, feeling tears threatening to spill over as he leaned forward, his arms still around his stomach.

 

“For not being their little girl anymore.”

 

The last thing that Jasper was expecting was a pair of arms around him. But he didn’t really react for a minute. It felt so good and awful to say that out loud. It was horrible because it confirmed the fact that, yes, his parents didn’t really love him. Even though he had tried desperately to hold onto the idea that maybe they just didn’t understand or maybe they just wanted the best for him. But it also felt great, because God, he had bottled everything up inside of him and never let it out. 

 

Without warning, Jasper wrapped his arms around Stanley’s waist, letting out a soft sob. He felt like he was drowning and pushed his face into his stomach, trying to focus on the smell of the older man’s shirt - cigar smoke, leather, and some sort of deodorant that he didn’t recognize. He couldn’t see, from that angle, how angry and upset Stanley himself looked. 

 

“Kid, listen to me.” Stanley pulled back, slowly kneeling down in front of Jasper, very carefully pulling his hands away from his face so that he could see him properly. “There is so much more to life than what other people want ya to be.”

 

Jasper hiccuped, “But my parents—“

 

“Screw ‘em.” Stanley said firmly, grabbing Jasper by the shoulders. “They’re not worth it. You said ya have sisters. What do they think?”

 

“Th-They… they love me.” Jasper managed after a moment, sniffling almost helplessly. “Angela talks to me all the time and Kelly always tells me she misses me.”

 

“People who matter are the one’s who love ya unconditionally,” Stanley said, “they don’t care who you are or what your name is, as long as you’re happy. They respect you and treat you how you deserve to be treated.”

 

Jasper was silent as he finally looked up at Stanley. He could tell that this was all coming from a place of understanding, from a place of familiarity, like Stanley knew what it was like to be on his own. And Jasper wanted to ask, but he was honestly crying too hard to even think of how to.

 

“Now c’mon,” Stanley said, stepping back and offering him a hand, shooting him a big grin. “let’s go watch some garbage tv and bitch about how expensive theater tickets are.”

 

Jasper gave him a wet-eyed smile, taking his hand and standing up. As they left the bathroom, Jasper said, 

 

“Hey, Stan?” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thank you.”

 

He saw the smile spread across the older man’s face as they went into the living room, and Jasper found himself feeling better than he had felt in a very long time. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit. I’m back. 
> 
> I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated last, but I promised myself that I wasn’t going to rush the story and I wasn’t going to try to work when I didn’t have any inspiration for it. But I’m determined to finish this because I’ve actually never finished a story I’ve written on this site.
> 
> Also, I know that I double posted chapter seven and that has been fixed. 
> 
> I will eventually go back through this and fix all of the typos and make it look a lot better, but right now, I have to write through my phone because I don’t have any internet at my place. 
> 
> Anyway! I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

The next day Jasper felt much better. He knew that it had to do with the fact that Stan had helped him, not just with finding something he could safely bind with, but he validated him in a way that no one else had. Sure, his sisters loved him and always made him feel like who he was but it was different coming from somebody who wasn’t related to him. It honestly made him admire Stan.

 

When he got off of the mattress in the spare room, his eyes quickly found the tape that he had been given. He stripped off his shirt and unrolled it, feeling the texture of the sports wrapping. It would probably leave some marks, but not the kind that would cause him to bleed or bruise. It would be nice to not have to worry about getting infections anymore. He carefully wrapped himself up, making sure that it was tight, but not as tight as he usually would’ve done. And when he finished, he realized that he looked just as right as the ace bandaging had made him look. He smiled broadly as he pulled on the rest of his clothes.

 

He had a downstairs and headed toward the kitchen, quite hungry. He needed some sort of food in his system. But as he passed through the living room, he spotted Mabel sitting at the table and she saw him as well.

 

“Jasper!” She gave him a smile, bright as always. “I was hoping I’d see you. C’mon, I wanna ask you something.”

 

Jasper looked at the table for a moment, as she pointed across to the empty seat with a raspberry pink colored pencil. Her art supplies were scattered across the table, various sheets of paper with brightly colored drawings and lots of glitter. He had grown to know that it was always loud and sparkly whenever Mabel had anything to do with something.

 

After staring at the chaotic combination of artwork she had made, he sat down across the table from her. Jasper felt a little nervous as she pushed all of the papers aside and sort of steepled her fingers over the surface of the table. He felt like he was suddenly thrust into a job interview.

 

“Jasper,” she said, “I’ll be frank.”

 

“How can you be Frank if you’re Mabel?” Jasper gave her a little grin.

 

Mabel giggled a little bit, but she settled down again after a moment and the uneasy feeling returned to Jasper. “I’ve been trying to find a match for my grunkles for a while, but I never seem to get their matches made.”

 

“A ‘match’?” Jasper’s eyebrows furrowed.

 

“But then,” Mabel seemed to disregard his confusion as she continued, her smile returning, “It’s like you were pulled from sin air, attracted to the Shack by a ‘Magnet of Love’! It was a sign, and this week just made the chemistry you share with him obvious! You know who I’m talking about, right?”

 

Jasper felt his stomach twist up and his heart felt a little heavy, even though it sort of went up into his throat. He had really been trying to make it seem like he just enjoyed Stan’s company, but he was beginning to realize that he must’ve been pretty obvious about his interest in the man if she noticed. Either that, or she was just desperate to try and get Stan with somebody. 

 

_ I’m gonna go with that. _

 

“I’m guessing you mean Stan.” Jasper finally said, knowing he looked a little more flustered than he would have liked.

 

”Exactly!” Mabel’s smile turned into a full-blown grin, both cheeky and excited. “He says he’s not looking for love anymore, but I think he says that after every rejection. He’s a romantic deep down, and I can feel it! And you know what they say; even if you’re not looking for it, love will find you no matter what!”

 

For a moment, Jasper found himself lingering on what she said. It was sort of sad to hear that there had been multiple people that Mabel had obviously tried to get him with, and every single one of them rejected him somehow. But then again, maybe she just said that because he didn’t want to be with him. As much as he had grown to love Mabel, he also learned that she was kind of pushy.

 

“There’s plenty of potential there, I can see it in your face!” Mabel nodded, putting her hands on the table and pushing herself up, looking excited. “You know it would really get this chemistry going?”

 

“Talking to him more?” Jasper was still a little confused. What was Mabel trying to do here, exactly?

 

“Pfft, what?” Mabel giggled. ”No, I’m thinking something more romantic.”

 

“Romantic?” Jasper felt his ears get hot, a sign that automatically revealed his feelings - it always did, as his sisters had told him. “C’mon, Mabel, I-“

 

“Hold on! She interrupted him suddenly. “I’m getting an idea! I’ll get everything ready, Jasper, you just focus on falling completely and utterly in love. Matchmaker Mabel is back in the game!”

 

Jasper withheld a groan as Mabel hopped out of her seat, rushing from the kitchen and into another part of the house. He didn’t like this. Anytime that he liked someone, his sisters would usually get in the way, and do something dumb to ruin it for him. He worried that Mabel would do the same thing.

 

He decided to not have breakfast, as his appetite was sort of ruined by having that talk with her. So he left the kitchen and, not really paying attention, he almost ran right into Dipper. The boy was right outside the living room and it honestly seemed a little bit more than a coincidence. Dipper’s arms were crossed and he was looking at Jasper, which made him feel weirdly small. How could a kid look at him like a parent who was suspicious of their child doing something they shouldn’t have been?

 

“So, I heard about Mabel’s plan.” He said.

 

“Honestly, I’m not surprised,” Jasper shrugged, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, “she talks really loud when she’s excited.”

 

Jasper and Dipper looked at each other for a moment, and the older male watched as the kid’s posture softened a little bit. It made Jasper relax slightly, but he was still uncomfortable with the way that Dipper looked at him.

 

“Just tell me one thing.” Dipper said after a minute. “I know my grunkles can look after themselves, but….”

 

Jasper was quiet as he trailed off. “But what?”

 

“Can you promise me you won’t hurt Grunkle Stan?”

 

That definitely caught Jasper off-guard. Dipper looked genuinely worried (and still a little bit suspicious). He was fairly sure he had never seen that sort of look on any child’s face before. But it made him smile all the same. Dipper really cared about them, and that was something that was ridiculously heartwarming.

 

“Dipper,” Jasper crossed his arms. “I’m pretty sure that if I ever did anything to hurt him, he could literally kill me. I don’t plan on it.”

 

Dipper smiled a little bit. “That’s true. I guess we’re good for then, now.”

 

They shared another look, and it looked like dipper wanted to say something else, but a small ‘ding’ noise came from his pocket and he withdrew his phone. 

 

“And be ready… tomorrow afternoon?” Dipper’s eyebrows furrowed before his eyes widened almost frightfully. “ _ For your lakeside date with Grunkle Stan?! _ ”

 

“Wow.” Jasper felt like he had just been punched in the gut. When Mabel was determined, she really didn’t stop until she got what she wanted, it seemed. 

 

“Ugh.” Dipper looked uncomfortable and sort of grossed out. “This just feels weird. My Grunkle Stan going on a date? With someone probably at least three decades younger than him? Isn’t this weird to you?”

 

“Honestly?” Jasper sighed. “Yes. Absolutely. Not really the age difference, though. Just the idea that Stan actually might have feelings for me and the fact that Mabel is trying to hook me up with him.”

 

“She won’t stop until there’s either a connection between you two or Stan finds out and shuts her down.” Dipper said and then let out a sigh, rubbing his face with his free hand. “I hope Mabel doesn’t ask me for my help tomorrow. I mean, I already have enough trouble trying to date for myself-“

 

A yell from upstairs, that obviously came from his sister, interrupted him.

 

“Hey, Dipdop!” Her voice was almost loud enough to shake the entire shack. “I’m gonna need your help tomorrow!”

 

After a moment of silence, Dipper sighed. “Welp, nevermind.”

 

“Good luck.” Jasper chuckled.

 

“That’s what I should be saying to  _ you _ .” Dipper pointed out.

 

Jasper felt his face get warm and he chuckled awkwardly. “Yeah, I guess so.”

 

Luckily, the rest of the day went by with little trouble. Mabel seemed very invested in her plans and didn’t really come out of her and her brother’s shared room. Dipper and Stanford had both took over the living room to play their game, which they had invited Jasper to join, but he politely declined. He wasn’t any good with math.

 

He spent most of the afternoon outside with Stan, watching him work on the car and talking idly about whatever came to mind, but Jasper conveniently left out what Mabel had planned. He was stuck on that conversation that he had with her. How could he not be? 

 

Later that evening, she put in her plan into motion over dinner. It turned out that Stan had been planning to take the kids to the lake the next day to go fishing and Mabel managed to convince him to let Jasper come along. Jasper was definitely out of his league. He had no idea how to fish at all and he never had really been interested in trying. But he had to go along with this - he couldn’t imagine what Mabel would do if he didn’t.


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning, Jasper woke up with a feeling of dread that he didn’t really like. He always had it before actual dates. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t a real date, and it was sort of frustrating and validating. He figured that he was frustrated because he really did have feelings for the man, and obviously they weren’t returned. But it was validating to realize that it wasn’t a real date because he didn’t plan on sticking around. Once his car was fixed, he was going to head to his sister’s place like he had planned.

 

With sigh, he got out of the makeshift bed and pulled on some clothes he felt would fit a lake trip; dark cargo shorts and a tank top that was colored so it wouldn’t show the wrapping underneath. He had a feeling it was going to be rather hot outside, so he didn’t want to sweat to death when he was on this ‘date’ with Stan.

 

He actually got breakfast that morning, just a simple bowl of cereal. He wasn’t that hungry, but considering that all he had eaten the previous day was dinner, he knew that he actually needed to eat. And later on that afternoon, he found himself outside. 

 

He leaned against the scarlet door of the El Diablo, looking up at the totem pole that was outside of the Shack. It was sort of weird to him that it fit the aesthetic of the entire place, but it was also kind of funny. It was obviously part of the weirdness of the tour stop. It looked well-made, which made him a little more surprised than anything else. Though he did notice that whenever he moved, the eyes at the top seemed to follow him and he instantly averted his eyes, feeling uncomfortable all of the sudden.

 

But the feeling didn’t last as the front door of the house to burst open and a flurry of sequins and glitterified hair clips flew out, and it was all attached to a practically vibrating Mabel. 

 

“Jasper, are you ready?” She asked with a smile.

 

Jasper didn’t really trust her, especially because he didn’t see any conspiratorial nachos or wings and he swore that Mable might have dropped the whole date thing, which relieved him for just a moment.

 

“For fishing?” He asked, curious.

 

“Yeah!” She nodded enthusiastically. “Aren’t you excited? This isn’t just a regular lake fishing. This is Lake Gravity Falls fishing! Where adventure awaits, dangerous hot on your heels, and the islands shift and move in the corners of your eyes.”

 

_ Wait, what? _

 

Jasper didn’t really have time to question what she said, as Dipper was automatically right at her side.

 

“Are we talking about Scuttlebutt Island?” He asked with a smile. “I love telling that one. So, we were out on the shore, right, and we saw this giant—“

 

Jasper wanted to know more, but it seemed like he wasn’t going to get a chance to do anything mental today, because Stan then cut in with, “Hey! You kids better not be giving Jasper that lake monster story again.”

 

Jasper looked over and saw Stan coming out of the shack with several fishing rods in the crack of his arm, as well as a large tackle box in his right hand. And his other hand were for fishing hats with haphazardly embroidered things on the front of two of them. When he finally got a closer look, it revealed that there were actually names stitched onto the hats - ‘Mabel’ and ‘Dippy’.

 

“Grunkle Stan, you don’t have to pretend not to believe us anymore!” Dipper seemed frustrated. “I swear it really happened, it just rolls right out of the water and started chasing us—“ 

 

Mabel nodded, putting her hands to her face and squishing her cheeks together with wide eyes. “And we had a row back as fast as we could and it was speaking creepy monster language, and—“

 

“What did I say?” Stan said warningly. “No more of that monster talk or you’re going to scare Jasper away.“

 

Jasper chuckled a little bit when he noticed how disappointed both of them looked, but they left it at that. Stan put on a smile and dropped both Dipper and Mabel’s respective fishing hats on their heads, and Mabel tugged on hers while running to the car while Dipper followed, exchanging his usual hat for the fishing one. Maybe Jasper just had a soft spot for kids because he had a little sister, but they were adorable.

 

“Eh, kids love to exaggerate.” Stan said with a small smile and a shrug, catching Jasper’s attention. “Pretty sure it wasn’t that terrifying. Besides, I’ve been through worse.”

 

And then the man turned toward the car and yelled, ”Besides, I’ve been through worse! You hear that, kids? Only your Grunkle Stan’s got the right to complain!”

 

Jasper laughed as Stan have to do fishing supplies over to one arm, using his other to dig around in his pocket for the car keys. He tossed the rods, hats, and tackle box inside. But before Stan could close the trunk, Mabel darted her hand inside of it and grab a hat. Before Jasper could tell what it said, it was shoved into his hands and he smooth out the fabric to read his name on the front of it.

 

Stan groaned a little bit. “Mabel, I thought I told you I wasn’t gonna give it to him.”

 

“But you worked so hard stitching at this morning!” She gasped. “You even got the letters the right way on… mostly!”

 

As Mabel got into the backseat next to Dipper, Jasper looked at the hat a little closer. The sewing was a little messy and one of the letters was backwards, but it was pretty obvious that Stan put some amount of care into it. Jasper smiled as he looked at Stan, quickly noticing that he looked like he was trying to find something to say.

 

“Did you really make this for me?” Jasper was pleasantly surprised.

 

Stan scratches the back of his head and shrugged a little. “Yeah, Mabel wouldn’t let me leave until I made you one. She said it was nicer if all of us had matching hats or something.”

 

After a moment of consideration, Jasper put the hat on his head. It fit just right and he never really thought he would ever see himself with that sort of hat on, but he had a feeling that he looked ridiculously dorky and he wasn’t even mad at that. He looked at Stan and gave him a big grin. Stan didn’t respond, but as he closed the trunk, Jasper noticed that he looked silently pleased.

 

“C’mon!” Stan said as he walked around to the driver’s side. “Let’s get to the lake before all those tourists take the good parking spots.”

 

Jasper laughed as he got into the passenger seat. He had gotten used to the way that Stan acted when it came to things like that, and he honestly was sort of the same way. Like if he was going to a concert, he would usually show up a couple hours early so that he could get a decent parking spot himself or could be in the front of the line. It was just the smart thing to do, really.

 

“Grunkle Stan?” Mabel asked as they started driving. “Can we listen to the radio?”

 

“As long as it’s not obnoxious new teenage pop garbage, sure.” Stan grumbled.

 

Mabel squealed happily and looked at Jasper. She gave him the radio station she wanted to listen to, and after fiddling with the knobs, he managed to get it there. Instantly he started to laugh. It was exactly what Stan told her he didn’t want to listen to. 

 

As Stan grumbled under his breath, Jasper found himself quickly joining Mabel in singing - albeit a bit quieter than her, but still. And as he jammed out to the annoying but popular song, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Stan staring at him. And when he fully looked at the man, he turned his attention back to the road and Jasper swore that he saw his cheeks turn pink.

 

And that was how was the ride to the lake was. Eventually even Dipper joined in and it was honestly more fun than Jasper could remember having with his own siblings. The longer that he stayed there, the more that Jasper began to consider dipper and Mabel little siblings, which kind of hurt. He didn’t plan on coming back to Gravity Falls, but maybe he would have to change that. As he looked back at Mabel and Dipper rocking out, his grin widened.

 

He would absolutely have to change that.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is short, but it makes a good transition so that this chapter won’t be ridiculously long.

When they arrived at the lake, the parking lot was far less packed then Stan made it out to be. The weather brought out the true fishing fanatics and Jasper recognized a few customers from the Mystery Shack‘s gift shop milling about. There were a couple of clouds out, but they were white and fluffy, the sky was bright blue, and the sunshine was hot against his skin as he stepped out of the car. He glanced around, shielding his eyes from the light so he could get a better view of the lake.

 

A few boats were bobbing up and down in the blue gray water which was an obvious sign that they wouldn’t be the only fishers out on the lake, but Jasper expected as much with whether that nice. Some people were lazing about in the water. It looked nice and honestly Jasper wouldn’t mind going for a swim. He saw some families that were sitting and laying on beach towels; some sunbathing and some playing with their toddlers. A couple of kids were standing in line at a hotdog stand. For a small town, it seemed pretty lively.

 

Jasper’s attention was soon turned to Mabel and Dipper who ran out to the shore, and Mabel splashed him. All of a sudden there was a flurry of water flying as they both attacked each other violently with the lake water. Jasper laughed, smiling happily as he watched them. But when he heard a quiet grunt, he turned around and saw that Stan was trying to get everything out of the trunk by himself without dropping anything.

 

“Hey,” Jasper chuckled, “need some help?”

 

Stan glanced up from his armful at him. “It’s really not that much, y’know.”

 

“Not even a couple of poles?”

 

Stan was quiet for a moment, obviously considering the offer. And when his mind was made up, he handed Jasper two of the four fishing poles.

 

“Think you can hold your own?” He gave him a little grin.

 

“What, under the crushing weight of a couple of fishing poles?” Jasper gave him a playful glare. “I think I can manage.”

 

Jasper suddenly heard Mabel yell from the water, “Truce, truce! I’ve got a phone call!”

 

Jasper watched as Mabel took out her cell phone and headed for the shore, and Dipper did the same, wringing out the water from parts of his shirt with a grin.

 

“Uh huh.” Mabel nodded, her eyes wide and glimmering with excitement as she headed their way. “Okay, I’ll be there in five! Bye, Grenda!”

 

Mabel suddenly hung up and ran the rest of the way over to Stan and Jasper. She looked excited and overwhelmed, but also sort of sad.

 

“Grunkle Stan, I’m really, really sorry, but an emergency is happening right now as we speak!”

 

“What, is someone dying?” Stan seemed just as confused as Jasper was.

 

“No, the opposite!” She exclaimed. “A birthing! Grenda Jr. is having a baby right now and Grenda needs me there for motherly support! Grunkle Stan, you gotta let me go!”

 

Stan scratched his head and frowned a little bit. “I dunno, sweetie, I thought we were all gonna go fishing today. Can’t she hold it in? Isn’t that a thing that happens?”

 

Jasper fought tooth and nail to hold back a laugh. That was absolutely not something that could happen. And Mabel confirmed that right away.

 

“Nope, and it’s not every day that I get to see the wonders of iguana childbirth!” She said, pouting a little. “Grunkle Stan, please?”

 

Stan relented at the sight of her pout. “Alright, pumpkin. Go on, I know your friend is waiting for you.”

 

With an excited and rapid fire of ‘thank you’s, she wrapped her arms around stands waist and gave him a strong hug, her grin as wide as ever. She then let go and grabbed Dipper’s wrist before dashing off.

 

“And I’m taking Dipper for moral support!”

 

“Wait, I didn’t agree to this! Mabel! Mabel!”

 

Jasper had to snort. That was something he remembered from his childhood; his older sister dragging him around like a ragdoll, even if he didn’t want to do something. But then his happy memory faded out when he realized something.

 

“I thought lizards hatched from eggs.”

 

“Thought so too, but hell, I’ve seen weirder.” Stan shrugged. “Best not to question it, kid.”

 

There it was again, that nickname. As much as he appreciated it because it told him that Stan cared for him at least a little bit, it was frustrating. Jasper really did have some sort of feelings for him and being called a kid just made it more obvious that Stan didn’t really see him that way. At least, that was what Jasper thought.

 

But his thoughts were wiped away when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that it was a text from Mabel.

 

**M:** hiiii jasper!!! i fixed you up so that you would get a whoooole day with Grunkle stan. have fun!!!! (;

 

And a few seconds later, he received another text.

 

**M:** o shoot, i gotta go, grenda is getting closer to baby time. seeeeeya!!

 

As much as Jasper wanted to be annoyed with her, he found that he couldn’t be. That was ridiculously clever of her. And he had completely forgotten about the entire date scenario since they arrived at the lake.

 

“Something wrong?” Stan asked, startling Jasper a bit.

 

“Nah,” Jasper was quick to think up a lie, “Mabel was just saying she’s gonna send lots of pictures of the newborn lizard.”

 

Was is it wrong that he lied to because he actually sort of wanted to go on a date with Stan, even though he didn’t know it was an actual date? Probably. And when he looked at Stan, he could tell that the older man didn’t quite believe him, but thankfully, he seemed to brush it off.

 

“Well, c’mon,” he said after a moment of silence, “let’s get to fishing before it gets dark out.”


	16. Chapter 16

Jasper followed Stan out toward the first pier, and he saw that there was a boat that was docked with only a frayed length of rope. It was a small dinghy with the words ‘STAN O’ WAR’ brushed on it in thick, black paint. He noticed a small rusting motor on the back that looked as if it was going to fall apart if anyone actually touched it and what looked like a hastily made patch on the side. 

 

Just looking at the boat made him nervous. There was absolutely no way this thing would float with one person in it, let alone two. He watched as Stan set the two poles down inside, along with the tackle box, and he gestured at the boat.

 

“Well, there she is!” He said, obviously quite proud of the tiny, rickety boat. “A beauty, ain’t she?”

 

“Uh,” Jasper again found himself searching for something he could say, “It’s… a bit small, don’t you think?”

 

Stan crossed his arms. “What, you saying you got a problem with my boat?”

 

“Uh, no,” the younger male was scrambling for words, “it’s just.. where are we gonna put all of the fish we’re about to catch?”

 

Stan actually laughed at that and Jasper relaxed with a grin. Thank God he didn’t say something offensive. He was already nervous enough just being alone with Stan, something he had begun to notice lately. But the way that his expression brightened made Jasper feel a little bit better.

 

“Optimistic?” Stan grinned. “I like it.”

 

“I’m gonna catch so much fish that they’ll be coming out of your ears, Stan,” Jasper winked, “just you wait!”

 

“Alright, hotshot, I’ll hold you to that.”

 

He watched as Stan climbed down into the boat first, and then he offered him his hand to steady himself as Jasper did his best to follow him down. The boat wobbled a little, swaying dangerously away from his body, but Stan’s grip was firm and Jasper was able to get into the boat without incident.

 

“Whoa there, careful now,” he said, surprisingly patient, “wouldn’t want you getting wet before we’ve even started.”

 

And then he gave Jasper an almost playful grin. “The footing’s a little tricky, see, that plank has a habit of moving and tipping this boat all the way over, and when that happens, you want to swing your weight over here—“

 

“Okay, nope, I’m done,” Jasper laughed, “I’m getting out.”

 

Stan gave a hearty chuckle and Jasper had to grin a little bit himself. But what was really making him grin was the fact that Stan was still holding his hand. But when that realization actually hit him, he felt his face getting hot. Stan’s hand was calloused and warm and  _ huge _ .

 

“I’m just messing with you.” He said. “Don’t worry, you’re not gonna get wet, toots. You’re in good hands.”

 

_ Toots? _ Jasper’s face was getting hotter. He liked that nickname. He liked it a lot more than he should have, actually. Maybe once they got back to the shack, he would have to actually thank Mabel for this.

 

“And this, uh, isn’t the only fishing vessel I own.” Stan explained, looking ever so slightly embarrassed. “The other one’s bigger, called the ‘Stan O’ War II’.”

 

“Creative.” Jasper commented.

 

“Hey, I’m not joking this time.” Stan gave him a little glare. “I’ve got pictures— Wait, hold on, quit standing. Take a seat. Don’t want you losing your balance.”

 

Jasper very carefully took a seat, and he watched as Stan dug out his wallet from his jacket and opened it. It was so full of photos that several of them escaped, fluttering down to the floor of the boat. Jasper leaned over and started to pick them up. One of them was of the twins, another was of Soos, and another was of a red-headed teenager that Jasper guessed was Wendy - he hadn’t met her, but he had heard plenty about her.

 

“ _ This _ is the Stan O’ War II.”

 

As Jasper sat back up again, they exchanged photos. This one was unfolded and it was of him and Stanford standing probably on the deck of a much larger, newer and safer looking vessel than the one that they were in currently. It was docked in a place he didn’t recognize and the sky was bright blue and completely cloudless.

 

“She’s a resilient one.” Stan said. “Sailed all over and never let me down once.” And then he frowned a little bit. “Well, until me and Ford came back to Oregon. Then, poor, she sputtered out and we had to send her in for repairs. Somethin’ about sailing in extreme environments.”

 

“I’m guessing this one needs fixing more than it’s sequel.” Jasper chuckled.

 

“Yeah, just like my El Diablo.” Stan nodded. “Every time it broke down, I just fixed it up again. Learned real quick what to do and what not to do under the hood.”

 

He chuckled a little bit and let go of Jasper’s hand finally, shifting to show him the other hand. He was presenting his outstretched palm to him.

 

“See that scar? The big one across my palm?” He asked and Jasper nodded.” I told the kids I got it from fighting off a big grizzly bear. You should’ve seen the looks on their faces. They thought I was some kind a hero, y’know. But uh, the real story is that I burned it on the engine when I was sixteen.”

 

“Are you kidding?” Jasper looked alarmed.

 

“Nah, I must’ve thought I was hot stuff, trying to change the oil while the car was running.” Stan rubbed the back of his neck, looking a little pink in the cheeks.

 

“That must have hurt.” Jasper winced a little.

 

“Eh, my pops called me an idiot for thinking the engine wasn’t hot, but my ma cleaned me up in the end.”

 

Jasper chuckled and watched as Stan did his best to put the picture of the Stan O’ War II back into his wallet. He gave the man a little grin.

 

“Hey, does that wallet actually have money in it sometimes?”

 

Stan chuckled a little at the comment. “Nah, I just keep a lot of photos in there to remember. Keeps me grounded.”

 

“That’s smart.” Jasper’s grin relaxed into a small smile.

 

“I’m not as dumb as I look.” Stan laughed, and then nodded. “Anyway! Let’s get this show on the road.”

 

Stand turned, busied himself with cranking the motor. With a few pulls, it sputtered to life and expelled a thick plume of exhaust. Jasper found himself coughing along with Stan as the older man tried to wave it away. Once the cloud was mostly dissipated, Stan gave the motor a couple of good thumps and it quit coughing. The engine smoothed out and gave into a much gentler noise. From there he was back to focusing on untying the boat from the pier and easing it out into the lake.

 

As they moved across the water, Jasper looked around. Much to his horror, he spotted the two policeman from their night in the jail and he looked at Stan nervously. Stan turned his head and looked over to see them as well. But when he saw how worried Jasper looked, he barked a laugh.

 

“Who, Blubbs And Durland?” Stan grinned. “I told you, those two are harmless. And besides, I think today they’re a little more focused on each other than us.”

 

Jasper looked back over again, curious to verify Stan’s claim. Sure enough, the two cops were engrossed only in each other, laughing and applying sunscreen to each other‘s faces. It was actually kind of cute, but Jasper was more focused on the relief he felt when he realized that they weren’t on the lookout for him and Stan.

 

“Thank God.” Jasper sighed. “I’ve already been through the wringer a few times now and I don’t wanna have to do it again.”

 

Stan gave him a nod of agreement as he opened the tackle box. There were a bunch of colorful lures inside, a few hooks, and some spare string for the poles. He motioned for Jasper to hand him his pole and within a few minutes, he had a hook tied to the end of the line.

 

“You a live bait or lure kinda person?”

 

“Uh, lure.”

 

The idea of using live bait on the end of the hook made him sort of queasy, so Jasper opted for something more harmless and colorful.

 

“Ah, gotcha.” He nodded. “I’m a live bait man myself. But I betcha I can swing you over to my side in no time.”

 

Jasper watched as Stan picked out a feather lure from the tackle box and attached it to the end of the line, and then he handed Jasper back the pole. He noticed that the lure was the same color as his dyed hair, but he decided not to mention it because he didn’t know if it was on purpose or a coincidence.

 

After Stan got his own fishing pole in order, the two of them settled into a comforting silence as they casted their lines into the water. As he waited for a bite, he looked out over the lake again. It really was a beautiful day and it was kind of nice to see all of the people enjoying it as well. And after a little while, Stan began to point out the faces of the locals, putting names to them and giving him a little background on each person. Even though most of the background information he gave away obviously was mostly his opinion, Jasper still did his best to remember the names at least.

 

Time passed surprisingly easy, and Jasper soon found himself reeling in quite a few catches of his own. He looked over at Stan and he noticed that he clearly managed to catch more, but Stan dismissed the difference with the excuse that his luck was just waiting to kick in any moment.

 

“Seriously, any moment.” Stan glared at the lake for a minute, and then let it go, leaning back with the site. “I think it’s time for a water break, don’t you?”

 

“Trying to distract me so you’ll gain the advantage?” Jasper teased.

 

”Hey, if you faint out here, that’s not gonna be on me kid.” Stan said simply. “Do you want to bottle or not?”

 

“Yeah, I’m dying of thirst.” Jasper nodded.

 

Stan leaned down and dug around in the bottom of the boat toward the front and came away with two bottles of water, dripping wet with condensation. He smiled and tossed Jasper the bottle and he caught it, twisting of the cap and taking grateful step. And then he took another, much larger drink.

 

When Jasper finished taking a drink, he watched as Stan grabbed his own water bottle and started to chug it, clearly more thirsty than Jasper was. He noticed some of the water slipped past the opening and dripped down under his chin and then onto a shirt, darkening the fabric. Jasper felt his palms get sweaty and, for some reason, he couldn’t look away.

 

And when Stan looked at him, obviously noticing that he was staring, Jasper felt his heart dropped into his stomach. He watched as Stan looked away the stray moisture from his lips. Both of their eyes met for a moment and all they could seem to do is just stare at each other. Both of them were holding their breath. Jasper watched as Stan licked his lips again, much slower that time, and it almost seemed...  _ deliberate _ . Jasper felt his heart leap into his throat.

 

However, even though he wished that moment could have lasted a lot longer, the sound of a motor from another boat broke the silence between them and he whipped his head around just in time to see a speed boat tear past both of them at a speed that was definitely illegal for a lake like that. He had half a mind to share a very rude gesture to the driver, but suddenly stand was grabbing his hand and shouting loudly,

 

“Look out!”

 

Because only seconds later did the massive wave that was created by the speedboat slam into the dinghy and rocked it off balance, tipping it dangerously to one side before completely dumping both of them out into the water, fish and all. 

 

Jasper came to the surface in only a few seconds, gasping for breath. His chest felt tight. The water was cold, almost bitterly so for being in the middle of the summer. And despite surfacing almost instantly and his body being halfway in the sun, he was already completely soaked and shivering. The poles, the tackle box, and the fish were long gone and the boat floated up turn some distance to his right. He swam over to it and grabbed onto its curved underbelly, gasping for air.

 

He suddenly heard Stan sputtering behind him, making his way to the boat as well. He was yelling at the offending boat, using some rather colorful terms that Jasper had never heard before. He made a note to remember them for whatever reason he might need them. And when Stan made it to his own upturned boat, he sagged heavily against the wood, taking in deep, measured breaths. He too was completely soaked and his wet shirt clung tightly to his body. Jasper tried not to stare.

 

“Well, that’s one disaster of a fishing trip.”

 

“I mean… it wasn’t too bad until that happened.” Jasper managed to chuckle a little bit.

 

Stan let out a disappointed groan and started to pull off his jacket before tossing it onto the upturned boat.

 

“What are we going to tell Dipper and Mabel, that their old uncle’s lost his fishing touch?” Jasper continued, trying to lighten the situation.

 

“Ha! You wish.” Stan grinned a little bit finally. “I could out-fish you any day.”

 

“I’d like to see you try, old man.” Jasper stuck his tongue out at him.

 

“Old man?! Why, I oughta—“ Standidn’t finish the sentence, splashing water at Jasper.

 

The younger male shrieked in mock out rage before wicked grin filled his face. He wrecked his arm through the water as hard as he could, creating a big enough way of that splash to Stan, re-soaking him from head to chest. He looked shocked once he recovered, but he let out a deep belly-laugh and return the gesture with an even bigger splash. 

 

“Uncle! Uncle!” Jasper cried, laughing as he put his hands up in defense.

 

“I’m not your uncle!” Stan teased, laughing a bit more himself.

 

By the time that Blubbs and Durland came to rescue both of them, they were both so utterly soaked from the impromptu water battle that they both knew there was no way they’d dry off in the sun. Jasper and Stan exchanged giddy smiles as the two officers headed back to shore. Something told Jasper that despite losing all of the fish, neither of them were going to go back empty-handed.

 

The walk back to the car was slow and methodical, an honest relief after the adrenaline rush that Jasper had just a little while ago. He watched as Stan wrung out his jacket, muttering under his breath about damaging good Moroccan leather, when a sudden and violent cold chill ran through his body. Despite the warmth of the sun, Jasper’s soaked clothes and clammy skin from the water we’re catching up to him all at once. He glanced over to find Stan looking at him worriedly.

 

“Oh, geez,” he said, “here, take my jacket.”

 

Before Jasper could say anything, Stan draped his jacket around his shoulders. It was damp, of course, but he was immediately surrounded by a sense of warmth and comfort and his chills were subsiding a little. Somehow, despite having taken a dunk in the lake, it smelled more like something woodsy and cigar smoke than, probably gross, lake water. Jasper had to repress the urge to push his face into it.

 

While he was busy taking in the comforting feeling of the jacket, Stan had hopped into the driver seat and had the El Diablo turned on and running. 

 

“You need a ride back?”

 

“Stan,” Jasper gave him a look, but with a small grin, “you are my ride.”

 

“I know,” he chuckled, “I’m just teasin’ ya.”

 

Stan reached over and opened the passenger door for Jasper, motioning for him to join him inside the car. “C’mon, let’s get back to the Shack. S’lot warmer in here than out there, y’know.”

 

“Amen to that.” Jasper chuckled.


	17. Chapter 17

As they begin to drive back to the Shack, Stan turned on the radio. When a pop song came on right away, he grumbled and turned it back to the original radio station it was on, and Jasper had to laugh. He almost forgot about the karaoke session with Mabel and Dipper on the way to the lake. Stan stop grumbling when a song he knew came on, and to Jasper’s surprise, he knew it too. Without really paying attention, Jasper found himself singing along and he could hear Stan humming along as well.

 

The breeze from the open windows was surprisingly calming and as the trees flew by, he didn’t regret getting soaked anymore. He kind of liked being out in the country like that. Even though he had never even considered it before. It was just nice to be away from the hustle and bustle of bigger towns and cities, not feeling rushed to do everything he needed to do.

 

“So, you sing professionally or somethin’?”

 

“Huh?” Jasper stopped singing and looked at him, laughing a bit. “God no. Just for fun. I play the guitar too.”

 

“No kidding.” Stan smiled a little bit. “You’ve got a damn good voice. You should do somethin’ with it.”

 

“Like what?” Jasper asked.

 

“I dunno.” Stan shrugged. “You do karaoke?”

 

“Yeah, I have a few times.” Jasper nodded. “Everyone always tells me the same thing, that I should go professional or whatever.”

 

“Ah.” 

 

“You sound like you actually care if I did. I appreciate it.”

 

Jasper looked out of his window, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught Stan looking at him in a surprised manner. But when he finally looked away, Jasper noticed a small and pleased smile on his face. 

 

it wasn’t long before Stan pulled up to the shack and shut off the car, and both of them got out. Jasper could feel his limbs crack and pop from the exertion and only then did he realize how exhausted he felt after the day’s adventure. He couldn’t wait until he finally got into bed.

 

“Hey, Jasper,” the younger man looked over at Stan, furrowing his eyebrows as he noticed that he seemed to be a little bit ashamed, “I kind of feel bad about getting you all soaked today. I-I promised you’d be in good hands, and then everything went right to hell in a handbasket, didn’t it?”

 

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Jasper chuckled. “Accidents happen.”

 

Stan nodded and a small smile appeared on his face. “That’s true…. Hey, do you like campfires?”

 

“Huh?” Jasper was confused with the change of subject. “Yeah, I do. Why?”

 

“Great! Hold on, I’ll be just a few minutes.”

 

Stan disappeared, leaving Jasper confused and standing in the backyard of the shack as he went inside, slamming the door shut as he went. A chilled breeze whip through the trees and he shivered. Despite Stan’s jacket, he was still a little damp and being exposed like that certainly didn’t help. 

 

But then he remembered something and his hand shot to his pocket, pulling out his phone. When he tried to turn the screen on, it didn’t light up.

 

“Oh, fuck.” Jasper cursed quietly, shaking it. “C’mon, please come back on. Please.”

 

He waited a few seconds before pressing the power button and he held his breath. After a few seconds longer than usual, the screen lit up and he let out the heavy breath that he had been holding. He couldn’t afford to get a new phone and he knew his sister couldn’t afford to get a new phone for him. It was a miracle that it was still working. And after a couple of seconds, texts began to come in. The first couple were from Mabel.

 

**M:** you and grunkle stan better be having a good time (;

 

**M:** you gotta tell me aalll the deets when you get back !!!!

 

Jasper chuckled, moving onto the next set of messages, which were from his older sister.

 

**A:** hey man how’s it going in the sticks

 

**A:** you okay dude

 

**A:** please tell me you didn’t end up in a cabin in the woods like that freaky ass movie

 

**A:** dude where tf are you

 

Jasper probably shouldn’t have laughed, because he knew that she was worried, but he did anyway. It was hard to take her seriously sometimes.

 

**J:** hey im here sorry. i had a bit of an adventure today and things got kinda nuts sorry for not texting 

 

He sent the text and then put his phone away. He knew she was going to demand a story later, but he was far too tired to actually care about that at the moment. When he heard the front door of the Shack open again, he looked up and saw Stan coming through the door with an arm full of marshmallows, crackers and chocolate.

 

“C'mere, I wanna show you somethin’.”

 

Jasper was curious, so he followed Stan until they came up to what happened to be a makeshift fire pit. There was already wood and kindling inside and part of him wondered if Stan always kept the firewood lying around or if he prepared that’s just for him. Jasper felt his stomach twist up pleasantly at the though. 

 

He watched as Stan pulled out a book of matches from his pocket and struck it, tossing it into the wood pile, where gradually, the kindling ignited. It wasn’t long before there was a modest but warm fire going.

 

“I figured you’re still pretty damp, and I’m sure you’re hungry as hell since we didn’t catch any fish, so…” He gestured over to the fire pit. “It’s the least I could do for screwing up your day.”

 

“Well, for one, you didn’t screw up my day.” Jasper chuckled, “Shit, even though we ended up in the lake, it was still fun.” But then his grin relaxed into a small smile and he could feel his face get hot. “But… this is incredible. Thank you, Stan.”

 

He watched as stands cheeks definitely turned red, but just a little bit. Jasper knew it was from the praise. He could tell that he wasn’t expecting it with that much sincerity, at least, if at all.

 

“Well shucks,” he laughed, almost breathlessly, “I’m glad you like it.”

 

They both settled in next to each other in front of the fire, using small metal sticks to roast marshmallows over the open flame. Just realized he hadn’t done that in a very long time and it was nice to revisit something he actually liked doing. They sat out there for a long time, talking about whatever came to mind and Jasper was fairly sure that Stan burned his mouth more times and he could count by trying to eat a marshmallow that was way too hot. 

 

“You ever played catch with these?” Stan asked suddenly, a marshmallow between his fingers.

 

“With my mouth?” Jasper grinned a little. “Who doesn’t do that?”

 

Suddenly, a grin spread across Stan’s lips and he tossed the marshmallow up in the air, straight towards Jasper. “Catch!”

 

Jasper leaned back and opened his mouth just in time for the marshmallow to sail right through his lips and into his mouth. He bent down and chewed with a triumphant grin, flinging his arms up in the air victoriously. Stan laughed a little bit.

 

Their moment of fun was cut off when the back door flew open, and out came Dipper and Mabel, running up to the campfire excitedly. They were both in their pajamas but looked wide-awake as ever and we’re already snatching up the marshmallow back to dig in.

 

“Are these marshmallows?” Mabel gasped. “C’mon, Grunkle Stan, why didn’t you tell us you were roasting marshmallows?”

 

“Because you should be in bed, pumpkin. That’s why.” Stan chuckled.

 

Jasper watched as he ruffled her hair affectionately and pulled her into his lap, handing her his roasting stick. Jasper looked over at Dipper and part of the ground for him to sit at his side. The young boy looked pleasantly surprised as he took the seat, and Jasper’s roasting stick. Dipper already felt like a little brother to Jasper, which was kind of nice, considering he didn’t have any male siblings.

 

“Nope, we’re teenagers now,” Mabel said confidently, “teenagers don’t have bedtimes.”

 

“Yeah, exactly!” Dipper agreed. “So, Grunkle Stan—“

 

“Answer’s still ‘no’, kid.” Stan crossed his arms and gave him a stern look. ”No, you can’t go out on a three day camping trip to track ‘ghost prints’.”

 

“But Grunkle Ford supports my theory!” Dipper seemed disgruntled.

 

“If ya ask me, your Grunkle Ford needs a bedtime too.” Stan mumbled, grinning a bit when Jasper snorted. “So, How was the.. live... lizard birth?”

 

“Oh, it was so exciting! Grenda Jr. was so relaxed, she didn’t even realize Grenda Jr. Extreme was being born before her very eyes! And then— Wait, you tell the rest, Dipper!”

 

“Uh, why don’t you keep telling it?” Dipper mumbled, looking suddenly a little bit nauseous. “I didn’t get a great look.”

 

“But I gave you a front row seat, right next to me!” Mabel protested. “You saw the whole thing up close, intimately and unforgettably!”

 

Jasper actually laughed this time, watching as Dipper shivered. It definitely wasn’t from the chill in the air. 

 

“Okay, fine. So Grenda Jr. Extreme imprinted on Dipper— isn’t that the cutest thing? Little DipDop, a mom!” Mabel gushed.

 

“No it’s not!” Dipper groaned as he put a marshmallow over the fire. “And I’m not little, I’m manly!”

 

“Yeah, the manliest kid I’ve ever seen.” Jasper teased, rubbing the top of Dipper’s hat and pushing it down onto his head.

 

Both Stan and Jasper chuckled at the kids’ antics and gave each other a brief glance. The fire crackled and Jasper found himself drawing Stan’s jacket further around himself, feeling truly warm for the first time that day.


	18. Chapter 18

When Jasper woke up the next morning, he found himself surprisingly energetic. He was shocked that he didn’t sleep in past noon, and when he looked at his phone, he was even more surprised to realize that it was still very early in the morning. He wasn’t sure what exactly made him wake up like this, but he knew he should probably take advantage of it, so he got up and quickly got dressed.

 

He wasn’t sure what to do for a moment, but then his stomach rumbled a little bit. Jasper decided that getting breakfast was probably a good idea, and he was feeling the need to go outside, so he decided that he could go to Greasy’s. The food was decent and the walk would give him a chance to call his sister.

 

Before leaving the room, he grabbed Stan’s jacket. He forgot to return it yesterday. And when he walked out into the living room, he didn’t see him, so he figured that it wouldn’t hurt to wear it one last time. He slid it on and walked out the front door. He remembered how to get to Greasy’s mainly because the town wasn’t that big. 

 

It was early morning, so it wasn’t very hot out yet, but the sun was warm enough to keep him from still being cold while wearing the leather jacket. After walking for a minute or two, he pulled out his phone and dialed his sisters number. It took her a little while to answer.

 

“Jesus Christ, Jasper, I thought you were dead yesterday!” Her voice was low, and that told Jasper that she was in her office at work. “A text before going out and doing… whatever you did would have been nice!”

 

”Hey, I fell into a lake with my clothes and my phone on me, so you’re even lucky that I texted you at all last night.”

 

There was silence on the other end for a moment before she spoke again. “What the hell did you get into?”

 

“A boat with an old man.” He chuckled and then shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. “We were fishing, but some asshole in a speed boat flipped us over.”

 

“You? Fishing?” His sister sounded surprised.

 

“I know, I know.” Jasper said. “I’m shocked too, but I couldn’t help it. The little girl here, Mabel, convinced me to go.”

 

”Okay, even if she was the one who convinced you to go, I keep hearing about this ‘old man’ guy and I want an explanation.”

 

He groaned and then sighed. “His name is Stan. He’s the guy who owns the Mystery Shack here. He doesn’t run it anymore, though. At first, he scared the hell outta me. He was pretty intimidating, but now that I know him a bit better, he’s actually a good guy.”

 

“How old is he?”

 

“Huh?” Jasper frowned. “Why does that matter?”

 

“I just wanna know.”

 

“I dunno, I never asked.” He said. “Maybe his late sixties?”

 

“Okay, so he’s not that old.” She said after a moment. “What’s he look like?”

 

“Why do you want to know all of this?” He asked after a moment, throwing up one of his hands. “It’s creepy.”

 

“Because the last guy you talked about this much broke your fucking heart, so I had to break his nose.”

 

Jasper went silent. He forgot that every single time he fell for somebody, not only had they left him eventually, but he always talked about them. It was a bad habit of his, constantly talking about someone. It was either about his siblings or a guy he was head-over-heels for.

 

“I don’t love the guy, Angie,” Jasper said, feeling an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy, but I don’t like him that way.”

 

“You’re such a liar.”

 

“And you’re too goddamn nosy.”

 

Despite the frustration in Jasper‘s voice, she still laughed at him. He hated it when she did that. It was a good way to piss him off and make him argue with her, but he was trying his hardest just to not feel ashamed of the fact that he only validated the way he felt about Stan - both to his sister and himself.

 

“Look, I’m about to go into a diner,” Jasper said, “I’ll call you back.”

 

He hung up the second he walked into the parking lot in front of Greasy’s and simply stood there for a minute. He was fairly sure that she knew he wasn’t going to call her back until he completely calmed down, which could’ve been a day or two away. He was just frustrated and overwhelmed. But once he called himself down enough to look semi-friendly in public, he went into the diner.

 

The smell of coffee and bacon filled his nose as he walked in, which made him smile ever so slightly. He saw a decent amount of people in there, and by that, he meant about a dozen other people. It was a small town. He had only been in gravity falls one week, but he was starting to learn some of the names, and stands refresher the day before helped a little bit. Like when he saw a big and burly man sitting on one of the stools up front, he quickly recalled his name.

 

“Hey, Dan!” He greeted him with a small smile, sitting down a couple of stools away from him.

 

“Huh?” For a moment, the man seemed confused until something clicked. “Hey, you’re that tourist stayin’ with the Pines. 

 

“Yeah, that’s me.” He chuckled.

 

He looked up as the woman who seemed to always be in the diner approached him. He was fairly sure her name was Susan, and he confirmed that by seeing her lazy eye. “What can I get you to drink?”

 

“Coffee, please.” Jasper gave her a little smile.

 

“Sure thing! I’ll have it right out for ya.”

 

Jasper noticed that she didn’t take Dan’s order. He had a feeling that most of the people who came in there were regulars, especially with the town being as small as it was. It probably wasn’t very common for someone to come around that actually would stay for more than a day or two at a time.

 

“Nice jacket.”

 

Jasper looked over at Dan and noticed a slightly smug look in his eyes, which made Jasper shift awkwardly. “Thanks, uh, Stan Pines loaned it to me.”

 

“Yeah, half the town noticed that yesterday.”

 

He felt his heart drop into his stomach. He hadn’t realized it was that public. And then he realized that in a small town, word probably traveled quicker than he would’ve liked. It probably only took one person seeing that interaction for the entire town to figure it out overnight.

 

“Splash sent a lotta fish swimmin’ my way, though, so thanks.”

 

“You’re welcome, I guess.” Jasper sighed. “Does everyone figure everything out in less than a day here?”

 

“You worried about that now?” Dan seemed amused. “People in town were talkin’ before that. Ya just gave ‘em more to talk about.”

 

Jasper didn’t want to know, but he found himself asking, “What were they saying?”

 

Dan shrugged in response. “I don’t listen to gossip. Gossip happens to come to my ears.”

 

That was the moment that Susan came back with Jasper’s coffee, and also one for Dan. Jasper figured that he ordered it before he sat down near him. He watched as Dan lifted the steaming mug of coffee do his mouth and then chug the whole thing. It look like an instant recipe for second-degree burn, but surprisingly, and almost sickeningly, he seemed to like it. And from what he was told by Stan yesterday, Jasper began to realize why the guy had such a ‘badass’ reputation.

 

“What were we talkin’ about?” Dan asked as he set the coffee mug down.

 

“I… don’t remember.” Jasper found his voice was far more uncomfortable now - this man could literally fold the younger male in half twenty times, if he wanted!

 

“I’ll get’cha a refill.” Susan told him and then gave Jasper a smile. “You ready to order, sweetie?”

 

“Uh, yeah,” he said quietly, “can I have eggs and bacon, please?”

 

She took his order quickly and left, which unfortunately left Jasper and Dan sitting in silence. He hated to admit that he was so intimidated by the man that he couldn’t even ask him any questions or talk to him, so he just sat there in an awkward silence, tapping at the counter before pulling out his phone. It didn’t take long for his food to come, and he was quite content to start eating. And, what was very unsurprising, was that Dan finished his large stack of pancakes that he had gotten a moment before in less than a few minutes. 

 

“It’s time for me to hit the road.” He said, getting up. “Nice t’meet ya.”

 

Jasper stayed silent as he went to the register, paying for his meal and leaving the diner. And as he left, the waitress came back over. She leaned against the counter and gave him a smile.

 

”So, stranger, I’ve been seeing you around here with the Pines and I haven’t even had the chance to talk to you yet! Mind if I stay for a bit?”

 

“Go for it.” Jasper gave her a little smile in return.

 

It was sort of nice to have somebody who didn’t look like they would kill him if he said the wrong thing giving him company. But he sort of had a few questions to ask.

 

“So, do you own this place?”

 

“Gosh, no,” she laughed, “I’m just a waitress. Been here ever since I was a teenager. Me and Matilda have been the only waitresses here for years, but we’ve had a new trainee workin’ here since the spring.”

 

She pointed out the window to wear a blond girl around Mable’s age was shooting a raccoon away from the diner’s trash cans. Susan put her hands on her hips with pride. 

 

“We’re startin’ her out small.” She said. “Woodpeckers are next.”

 

Jasper chuckled, watching the girl for a little while longer. She was really struggling with that raccoon, and he hoped that she didn’t get bit. He could only imagine what rabies shots felt like. The thought made him shudder. He  _ hated _ needles.

 

“How well do you know Stanley Pines?” He asked after a moment of hesitation.

 

She laughed. “Who doesn’t? Oh, he’s a real charmer. We almost had somethin’ once, but it didn’t work out. It’s really strange, I called him every night.”

 

Jasper chuckled again, but he also felt sort of uncomfortable all the sudden. Was he a charmer with everybody? He figured that he probably was, considering he ran a little tourist trap in the middle of the woods, so he had to be charming enough to sell as much as he possibly could to stay in business. But still, it was a little disheartening to know that it wasn’t just toward him.

 

“So how are things goin’ with him?”

 

“Huh?” Jasper looked at her, eyes widening.

 

“You two look close.” She pointed out, a little sparkle in her good eye. “Saw ya on the lake was fishing for dinner. Bet  _ he’s _ the real catch of the day, am I right?”

 

Susan laughed, elbowing him in a friendly manner, but Jasper was speechless and he could feel that his entire face and ears were on fire. That was definitely one way to say it, he had to admit.

 

“Well, I better get back to work.” She said with a small sigh. “It was nice to meet’cha, Jasper. Enjoy your breakfast!”

 

And he did his best to do just that, digging back into his breakfast with as much energy as he possibly could. He was still quite embarrassed from that interaction. But his meal was interrupted again, this time by the buzzing of his phone from on top of the counter. It was a call from a number that he didn’t recognize. He tentatively answered it.

 

“Hello?”

 

“This Jasper?”

 

“Wait, Stan?”

 

“Yeah, it’s me.” Jasper sighed in relief - thank God it wasn’t an annoying telemarketer. “Look, I’ve got a surprise waitin’ for ya back at the shack. Think you can get back over here from wherever are?”

 

Jasper knew that he probably sounded way too eager as he promised he’d be there once he finished eating. It didn’t take him much longer to finish, or to pay for his food. He was quick to head out the door.

 

His sister was right. He was such a liar.


	19. Chapter 19

When he finally got back to the Shack, he saw that Stan was already outside. “Hey! I was about to call again to make sure ya didn’t get lost. You planned this sort of timing, or what?”

 

“I’m gifted, what can I say?” He chuckled a little. “What’s the thing you wanted to show me?”

 

Stan gave him a little grin and let him back into the Shack. He continued to walk to a room that was in the back that Jasper remembered being used as mostly a storage space. But now the furniture that was in there had been pushed aside in the boxes have been stacked against the walls to make room for what looked like…

 

“A boxing ring?”

 

“I started putting this together last night after everyone and went to bed.” He said with a small grin. “I was admiring my new Klouneng again, thinkin’ about our drive last week and I remember I offered to show ya how to throw a better punch.”

 

“What, better than the one that gave you a nosebleed?” Jasper chuckled.

 

“Just ‘cause you gave me a bloody nose doesn’t mean ya did it right.” Stan laughed a little bit. “So, whadd’ya think? Ready to learn how to hit?”

 

“Yeah!” Jasper’s smile turning into a wide grin. “Let’s do this!”

 

“Whoa, someone’s eager.”

 

Jasper felt his cheeks get hot, but the grin that Stan shot his way looked more relieved than anything else. Jasper would’ve never said no, but it looked like Stan might’ve been worried about that possibility.

 

“Well, here.” Stan pulled out a roll of gauze tape from his pocket. “Before we even do anything, we gotta wrap your hands properly. You could get hurt otherwise.”

 

Jasper allowed him to take one of his hands and hold it, looping the tape around his thumbs and winding it around his wrist, and then up around his hand, making sure that it was snug. He pulled the tape between and through his fingers as they rested on his palm. His hand was warm, just as it was when they were at the lake, and it made his heart beat just a little faster than usual. He watched as he worked, confident and careful.

 

Jasper knew that it shouldn’t have affected him as much as it did. He should feel at least grateful, but nothing more. But after realizing his feelings that morning when he talked to his sister on the phone, it felt different because it was him and the two of them were nearly face-to-face. Did Stan feel anything like what Jasper felt, being that close to each other?

 

Stan finished the wrap at Jasper’s wrist and he watched as the older man pulled the tape toward his mouth. He clinched it between his teeth and jerked his head to sever it. Jasper could hear his heart in his ears. The remainder was wrapped back around, secure and complete. Stan smiled at his work. Jasper was glad that he didn’t look up at him yet, but when he did, Jasper knew he would be embarrassed by the expression on his own face.

 

“Other hand, now.”

 

Jasper offered his other hand and watched as Stan started on it, the same as before. This time he watched the action of wrapping his hand way less and focused more on the look in Stan’s eyes. It was in his focus that Jasper noticed that he looked like he cared for what he was doing, like it really was important. He could see it in every pull and twist of the tape. It was almost like a conviction to protect. He was so lost in the sight of it that, before he knew it, Stan was done and looking at him again.

 

“Alright, not too tight, is it?” 

 

“Nope.” Jasper barely avoided a squeak by clearing his throat.

 

“Then let me show ya how y’should be standing.”

 

Stan began to give some sort of explanation, but the moment that he stepped up to Jasper and placed the hand of the small of his back to guide him, he instantly wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying.

 

“You don’t wanna be too stiff, y’see—“

 

He was gentle as he directed Jasper, smoothing out the line of his shoulders and widening his stance. He placed his hands to show him how he should’ve been positioning himself. He was talking again, but Jasper was honestly more than distracted at that point.

 

“— And that’s why we do that. Make sense?”

 

“Y-Yeah.” His voice squeaked that time, but luckily, Stan didn’t seem to notice as he continued to talk.”

 

”Good. Now, onto punching.” Stan nodded. “I’ve got some personal experience with the way you hit and it could use a lotta work, kid. I’m tellin’ ya, I barely felt it. Here’s how to direct that strength.”

 

He demonstrated, moving to Jasper’s right to assume the same stance that he had guided him into and swinging through the empty air. He did it again, but slower that time so he could explain everything he needed to; how to shift his weight, where to start from, and where to go. 

 

And then it was Jasper’s turn, and after a couple of swings of his own, Stan’s hands-on guidance was back. His hands first rested briefly at his waist to adjust the twist of his torso, and they moved next to his shoulders, nudging him into better balance. Then he corrected the movement of Jasper’s arms and again, the younger male was distracted - Stan was so warm against his back. Jasper felt his breath catch a little.

 

“Yes, there—!” Stan seemed excited and then he shook his head, but his grin remained. “Damn, ya almost had it. Try again, come back here, and—“

 

“Uh, actually, I think it help if I had something to, um, hit.”

 

“Sure, we can—“ Stan started to speak, but then he stopped. “Jasper, you sure you want to go on? You’re looking kind of red.”

 

The unexpected intimacy of the situation was a little overwhelming to Jasper, and he was still so close. Especially after what he had heard at the diner, that whatever Jasper had with him was obvious, put him on edge a little bit. He still didn’t know if Stan felt the same way.

 

“I’m fine!” Jasper chuckled, steadying his voice the best he could. “You put this whole room together and we haven’t even used it yet. We should.”

 

“For that, you’re gonna need these.” 

 

Stan held up a pair of standard, albeit a little old, boxing gloves. He handed them to Jasper. He had some trouble putting them on, considering they were a little large and surprisingly heavy.

 

“Hold on,” Stan chuckled a bit, “let me do it. I’ll lace ‘em up for ya.”

 

He took Jasper’s hand again, like earlier, pulling the laces of the glove tighter and tighter until the fit was snug. “Is it too tight?”

 

“No, that’s fine.”

 

He tied it off and took his other hand, cradling it in his own for a moment before his hands moved up, brushing along his wrist. He pulled the laces together, and as he did, Jasper took a look at his face. He had that same focus, the same look of care. And the longer that Jasper stared at him, the hotter his face seemed to get. He knew that he was probably the color of the red curtains that hung in the back of the room.

 

“How about that?”

 

“Feels.. perfect, actually.”

 

Jasper looked up and locked eyes with Stan. He looked away after moment, clearing his throat with a cough, and Jasper definitely noticed how pink his face was. It was nice to see that Jasper wasn’t the only one who is affected, but that still didn’t answer the main question that Jasper wanted to know. He tried to push that out of his mind and watched as Stan quickly wrapped his own hands, the pink tint still lingering on his face. The man pulled on a pair of fingerless gloves and walked into the makeshift ring.

 

“You’re gonna try to land a hit on me, alright?” Stan said.

 

“What, you’re gonna just stand there and let me hit you?” Jasper frowned.

 

Stan laughed, shaking his head. “You think I’d make it that easy on ya, Jasper? No, I’m gonna be hittin’ back. ‘Course, I’m not gonna let any of my hits land, but it’ll stall you enough to make it a challenge.”

 

“Oh.” Jasper nodded. That made more sense.

 

“Boxing is pretty simple when you get down to it, but it’s all in the timing.” Stan said as he crossed his arms. “You need to know what that other person in the ring is thinking. It’s like… It’s almost like a dance. That other person in the ring, even though you’re up against each other, they’re just as much your partner as they are your opponent.”

 

Jasper nodded and stepped up to join him in the ring. “Where did you learn so much about boxing?”

 

“Well…” Stan looked a little reluctant to say anything, his eyebrows furrowing in a sad manner as he looked away. “ when we were kids, my brother and I had it a little rough. We weren’t too popular with the other kids in the neighborhood. So our old man put us through boxing lessons. He wanted us to be tougher. My brother couldn’t quite take it. He could aced the lessons, but he quit the first chance he could.“

 

And then Stan chuckled, but almost bitterly. “But me? What else did I have goin’ for me, y’know? If anything, I had to be tough enough to protect him, to keep us all safe. I’ve always got to be the tough one, and I always have been. It’s hard, but sooner or later, you forget what it’s like not to have to feel tough, so I guess you could say it gets easier.”

 

“After Ford and I…” he trailed off, that sad look that made Jasper almost want to cry coming back. “after I left home, I was on the road for a bit. Got into my fair share of trouble that followed me wherever I went.”

 

But then his expression hardened up. “But I was fine. I was tough enough. I knew how to fight. It got me far enough, didn’t it? It’s got me through all these years, and here I am, with y—“

 

Stan stopped himself, and Jasper looked at him quietly as he saw his eyes glisten a little. But Stan looked away before he could actually tell for sure. However, the man looked back with a big and ridiculous grin, as though to reassure him. He faked a cough and wiped out his nose. “Man, it’s dusty back here. We might as well get started already, huh?”

 

For a moment, Jasper couldn’t find his voice. And when he finally spoke, it was quieter than usual. “Sure.” 

 

“Alright.” Stan looked at him, raising his fists. “Let’s dance.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is, slowly but surely, coming to an end.
> 
> I’m changing the rating yet again to explicit so that I can just tack on what I originally had planned to the end of this story.
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Boxing with Stan was exhausting. Not just physically, but mentally. At first, Jasper was taking out his anger the best that he could without actually hurting Stan. He had a lot to be angry about in his life, especially the way that he was treated by his parents. And then he got even angrier when he thought about how other people usually treated him when they figured out that he was transgender. And then as he became physically  _ and _ exhausted, he could barely focus. He was watching the way that Stan’s chest heaved with every pant and how his forehead and collarbone was glistening with sweat.

 

“Alright, alright!” Stan exclaimed after another jab from both of them. “I’m callin’ it.”

 

But then, once he caught his breath again, he laughed. “It’s been too long since I last had a decent fight. Hey, you were great!”

 

Jasper could only laugh breathlessly. They both locked eyes again and there it was, the warmth and redness. Both of them are covered in sweat and out of breath, and even though they were both exhausted, Jasper could still pick up auto light in his eyes. It was a child-like eagerness. There was something there that was waiting to break in the moment of eye contact.

 

“You know what?” Jasper said after a moment. “I think… I think I’d love to dance with you sometime.”

 

“Yeah,” Stan nodded, “we should do this again.”

 

“Definitely.” Jasper agreed, but his smile faltered a tiny bit as he said, “But I mean, I think I’d really like to dance with you in a more literal sense, too. Not as opponents, y’know, but like, together. You and me.”

 

Jasper knew that he was probably just grasping at straws and made a huge mistake by even offering. Sure, he had seen stand blush a few times, but what did that even mean? He hoped that Stan felt it too, the connection and the chemistry they had. He didn’t know what he would do if he was the only one feeling anything.

 

Stan chuckled after a moment of silence, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck, his other hand on his hip. “I’d like that, y’know? I’d.. really like that.”

 

The way that Stan was smiling and seemed to light up his whole face. Jasper hadn’t seen that look before. But he knew that he was smiling too, wide and goofy like usual, but feeling a full sense of getting us that he couldn’t contain. There was something weirdly intoxicating about it. And with that feeling running through his veins, it was a hard jump back into reality.

 

“Hey, uh… can you get these gloves off?”

 

Stand laughed, loud and free, and he obliged. Once they left the ring and the room, Jasper was pretty eager to take a shower. And he was quick about it, mainly because he knew Stan would probably want to shower as well. And when he came out of the bathroom, hair still wet and wearing nothing but a pair of sweatpants and his makeshift binder, he ran into Stan almost right outside of the bathroom. He went to apologize, but he froze up when he realized that the older man wasn’t wearing a shirt either. It was strange, seeing him in just those tan slacks he had been wearing that day. 

 

“Oh, s-shit, sorry.” Jasper managed to laugh, his cheeks flushed hot.

 

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, kid.” Stan chuckled and then he nodded at him. “That stuff working out for ya?”

 

Jasper was confused for a moment, but then he looked down at the bandaging and back up and Stan with a smile. “Yeah, actually. And the bruises and stuff from the other bandages are starting to heal.”

 

“Nice not constantly hurting, ain’t it?” 

 

“Hell yeah it is.” Jasper’s smile turned into a grin, but as he glanced back at Stan’s chest again, he moved to the side and averted his eyes. “A-Anyway, I’ll get out of your way.”

 

“I appreciate it.” Stan laughed.

 

As Stan walked around him and into the bathroom, Jasper stopped and leaned against the wall. That was when it had  _ really _ hit him. It was a lot to take in at once and he realized that he actually was head over heels for a man that was probably at least three decades his senior. He was way in over his head and he knew it.

 

It was later that day, just after dinner, when he actually ran into Stan. Jasper let him know about what had happened at the diner.

 

“Is it always like that around here?”

 

“People talkin’ about my love life?” Stan chuckled. “After you’ve survived Mabel, everyone else is small fry. There’s not much to talk about in this town. So when a tourist crashes their car into the jewel of the town at the peak of the season, that’s prime material.”

 

“Yeah, apparently.” Jasper chuckled, running his hand through his hair. 

 

“Enough of that, though, I thought we could have a private movie night. You know, to wind down a little.” He said and then smiled a little at the sight of the grin appearing on Jasper’s face. “I keep the movies in that cabinet there. Going on and pick one.”

 

Jasper went over and kneeled down by it, opening it up to reveal stacks of VHS tapes and a few DVDs. He was fairly sure he hadn’t seen a VHS tape since he was a little kid, which amused him slightly. But he did his best to ignore that as he looked for a movie. He ended up pulling out a classic drama film. It looked old, and he was curious.

 

And as they begin to watch it, Jasper realized that it really was old. It was a black-and-white movie about a young woman whose lover had to leave the country to pursue his dreams. At the films climax, right as he was about to get onto the boat and sail off for foreign lands, the lovers kissed and violins swelled in a ridiculously cheesy way. They promised never to forget each other and he sailed away, knowing they’d never see each other again.

 

Jasper heard sniffling and after confirming that I didn’t come from the TV, he realized that it was coming from his left. From Stan, actually, and he was resolutely staring at the TV with a deep set frown on his face. His eyes were shining with withheld tears. So he really was a romantic at heart. Mabel actually got that right.

 

Jasper acted like he didn’t notice and continued to watch as the heroine returned to her average life, clearly no longer satisfied with the mundane experiences she was having living a normal life. The movie was entertaining enough to keep his attention, but just barely. He glanced at stand out of the corner of his eye and decided that maybe he could push his luck a little bit. He leaned his head over and gently put it on the older man’s shoulder.

 

“Gettin’ sleepy?” Stan’s voice startled him, but he didn’t move, so Jasper didn’t either.

 

“Kinda, but I gotta see how this ends.” Jasper said with a small smile. “There’s no way she’s just gonna go on like that.”

 

Stand chuckled little bit before making a sound of excitement. “Look, this is the best part!”

 

Jasper was fairly sure that he said that about three times already, but he didn’t really mind. It was nice to see the man actually excited about something. Not too long after that, the film concluded, leaving exactly what the woman did when she returned to the dock late at night unclear, which obviously set up for a sequel that Jasper had a feeling Stan had in his collection. The ending credits scrolled across the screen with sad music playing in the background.

 

“That was a good movie,” Jasper chuckled, “and you’re crying.”

 

But Stan’s wasn’t the only heart that the drama touched. Jasper knew that his eyes were misty and he hadn’t really been paying attention, and a couple of tears actually were running down his cheeks. When he felt them, he reached up to wipe them away. 

 

“You, uh, you feel that much for them, huh?” Jasper was embarrassed that he had been caught, but the emotion in stands voice sort of amused him a little.

 

“I mean, I haven’t cried like that since I saw ‘The Fault in Our Stars’.” Jasper chuckled.

 

“What’s that?” Stan asked.

 

Jasper looked at him for a minute, kind of incredulous, but then he got a big grin on his face. “You like romance and drama? That’s a real tear-jerker.”

 

“I’ll have to give it a watch.” Stan chuckled.

 

By the time that the credits were finally over, he was tired enough that he didn’t really want to get up from his spot. And he wondered if Stan felt the same way, but the obnoxious shift of the TV from black to loud and snow a static brought him to his feet. He grumbled as he switched the unit off, but didn’t bother to take the tape out.

 

“You were right,” Jasper admitted, “that was pretty good.”

 

“‘Course I was, Jasper.” Stan said with a small smile, offering his hand to help him up and out of his seat.

 

Jasper took the offer, struggling a little to get off of the cushion he sat on; it was well-worn in and sank down deeply. And when Jasper finally got to his feet, he met stands eyes for a minute and the faint glow of the table lamp caught in them, but Jasper broke the moment with a tired laugh.

 

“Thanks for the session today. My arms are sore, so I hope that means it’s working.” Jasper laughed a little, shifting his shoulders.

 

“Hey, it’s no problem.” Stan said, sounding content. “Well, see you in the mornin’.”

 

As Stan turned and began to leave the room, Jasper spoke up. 

 

“Hey, uh… I know you probably don’t… well…” Jasper was struggling with how to phrase his words, and he looked down at the floor instead of Stan, shifting his feet a little bit. “Look, I know what happened to you, being kicked out of the house and everything, happened a long time ago. But, uh… I’m here if you ever wanna talk about it.” and then he tacked on, with a slightly awkward laugh, “Might be easy to talk with someone who knows what it’s like.”

 

There was silence, and Jasper didn’t dare look up. Had he crossed a line? He felt like he did, as the older man didn’t really share things with other people, he had noticed, and he knew there was still a lot about Stan that he didn’t know. But after swallowing the invisible not in his throat, he looked up. 

 

Stan was staring at him, his smile gone. He looked like he was contemplating something and that made Jasper instantly feel guilty about even saying something like that. He averted his eyes, fiddling with his fingers.

 

“I-I’m really sorry, uh, I didn’t—“

 

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

 

Jasper looked up at Stan and saw that the man was now smiling, but it was almost gentle. And in his eyes, he saw nothing but a warm and pleasant gleam. And that allowed Jasper to finally relax. 

 

“Goodnight, Jasper.”

 

“Goodnight, Stan.”

 

As the man disappeared around the corner and down the hallway, Jasper found himself standing in place, a smile on his face. It wouldn’t seem like much to anyone else, but Jasper almost felt like it was progress. Maybe he would get to know him more before he finally had to leave.


End file.
